An informative guide on how to read and understand food labels, including nutrition facts, health claims, regulatory requirements, and allergy information.

- The Nutrition Facts label is a standardized, boxed panel required by the FDA on packaged food and beverage products to help consumers make healthier choices.
- The FDA and USDA regulate the information on food labels, requiring all labels to display the same core nutritional information.
- Health claims on labels have specific definitions: "Low fat" means 3g or less per serving; "Fat-Free" means less than 0.5g per serving; "Cholesterol-Free" means less than 2mg cholesterol and 2g or less saturated fat per serving; "Reduced Calorie" means at least 25% fewer calories than the comparison food; "Low Calorie" means 40 calories or less per serving; "Extra Lean" applies to meat/poultry/seafood with specific limits on fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol per 100g; "Light (fat)" means 50% or less fat than the comparison food; "Light (calories)" means one-third fewer calories than the comparison food; "High-Fiber" means 5g or more fiber per serving; "Sugar-Free" means less than 0.5g sugar per serving; "Sodium-Free or Salt-Free" means less than 5mg sodium per serving; "Gluten Free" means 20 ppm or less of prohibited grain; "Organic" means 95% organic ingredients.
- All food labels must contain: the common name of the product, the manufacturer's name and address, net contents (weight, measure, or count), serving sizes, an ingredient list in descending order of predominance by weight, and Nutrition Facts for one serving.
- Food allergy labeling requires manufacturers to clearly disclose, in plain English, the presence of any of the eight major allergens (milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat) either within the ingredient list (e.g., "Flour (wheat)") or after the list with the phrase "Contains: [Allergen(s)]".