Guide
How to make an FDA food label, panel by panel
Build a US packaged-food label in a fixed order: name the food, state how much is in the pack, list ingredients by weight, name the nine major allergens, add Nutrition Facts unless a real exemption applies, and put your business name and address on the information panel.
Reviewed against official guidance.SourcesNot legal advice.
The short answer
Build a US packaged-food label in a fixed order: name the food, state how much is in the pack, list ingredients by weight, name the nine major allergens, add Nutrition Facts unless a real exemption applies, and put your business name and address on the information panel.
Where this shows up in a real kitchen
People start in Canva with a logo. Then they crowd allergen icons onto the front and never write an ingredients list. FDA reads panels, not moodboards. Starting with the recipe weights is slower on day one and faster on day thirty, when a supplier swaps chocolate chips.
The US rule
Part 101 plus FALCPA plus, for most retail packs, 101.9 Nutrition Facts. Placement: identity and net quantity on the PDP; remaining required information on the information panel. FDA’s Food Labeling Guide is the illustrated sequence. This is not a UK PPDS three-line label.
How to apply it
Freeze the recipe. Weigh it. Sort ingredients. Map majors. Draft Contains. Calculate or obtain Nutrition Facts. Place PDP and information panel. Print a sample on the real stock. Have someone who did not design it try to find milk in ten seconds.
- Lock today’s formula and piece weight.
- Write PDP identity and net quantity.
- Write ingredients, allergen names and Contains so they agree.
- Add Nutrition Facts and business address, then proof a printed pouch.
Worked example
Peanut-butter cookies, 8 oz pouch: PDP “Peanut butter cookies” / “8 oz (227 g)”. Information panel Nutrition Facts for one cookie (RACC-based). Ingredients: enriched wheat flour (wheat), peanut butter (peanuts), sugar, butter (milk), eggs, baking soda, salt. Contains: wheat, peanut, milk, egg. Distributed by the LLC with street, city, state.
Checks that belong on this pack
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Every major allergen in the dough is named | Peanut butter means peanut, not “nuts”. |
| Contains matches the list | No leftover sesame from a previous SKU. |
| Nutrition serving is an FDA serving, not a “treat size” you invented | RACC first. |
| Address is on the pack, not only the website footer | 101.5 is physical. |
Designing the front first and squeezing legal text into leftover gaps
Required particulars are not leftover. If the window sticker has no room, the pack is the wrong size, not the law.
What LabelClear can and cannot print
Draft the ingredients and allergen names here, then move them onto a US panel layout with Nutrition Facts and net quantity. Do not ship a UK-shaped label to a US customer and hope.
Questions
Can I hire a designer who has never read Part 101?
Do I need a UPC?
What software is allowed?
Official sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. Where they and we disagree, they are right — tell us and we'll fix it.
- Food Labeling GuideU.S. Food and Drug Administration
- 21 CFR Part 101 — Food labelingeCFR / National Archives
- Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA)U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Related guides
US food labeling
FDA food labeling requirements for packaged foods
If you sell packaged food in the United States, FDA labeling usually means a statement of identity, net quantity, an ingredients list in…
5 min read
US food labeling
FALCPA allergen labeling: what the 2004 Act actually requires
FALCPA requires packaged FDA foods to declare the major food allergens using their common names — either inside the ingredients list or i…
5 min read
US food labeling
The 9 major food allergens in the United States
US packaged foods must name nine major allergens: milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame.…
5 min read