Free nutrition label maker

How to make a Nutrition Facts label for your recipe

A Nutrition Facts label tells shoppers what is in one serving of your food. The rules for what goes on it, how it is laid out and how each number is rounded are in 21 CFR 101.9. This nutrition label maker does the math from your recipe, so you do not need a spreadsheet or a lab report to get a good estimate.

1. Enter every ingredient by weight

Weigh ingredients in grams if you can. Cup and spoon measures change with how you scoop and pack, while nutrition is calculated by weight. For each line, type the name you want printed on the label, the grams used in one batch, and pick the closest match from USDA FoodData Central. Everyday names such as "AP flour", "powdered sugar" or "unsalted butter" are mapped to the right USDA food, and small typos are tolerated.

2. Tell us the finished batch weight

Baking drives off water, so a batch of cookie dough weighs more than the baked cookies. If you weigh the batch after baking and enter that number, every value per serving is scaled correctly. If you leave it empty we use the raw ingredient total, which makes per-serving numbers come out a little low for baked goods.

3. Set the serving size

FDA bases serving sizes on "reference amounts customarily consumed" listed in 21 CFR 101.12. For example, the reference amount for cookies is 30 g, so a 30 g cookie is one serving. Enter the household measure ("1 cookie", "2 tbsp", "1/8 pie"), the grams per serving and the number of servings in the package.

4. Check the values and the rounding

The calculator adds up each nutrient for the whole batch, divides by the finished weight and multiplies by your serving size. Then it applies FDA rounding from 101.9(c): for example calories under 5 round to 0, calories up to 50 round to the nearest 5 and above 50 to the nearest 10; total fat under 0.5 g is declared as 0 g; sodium under 5 mg is 0 mg. % Daily Values use the Daily Values from the 2016 Nutrition Facts update (2,000 calories). Every value, the unrounded number and the %DV are shown for free on screen.

If an ingredient in the USDA database has no value for a nutrient (trans fat and vitamin D are often missing), you will see an orange warning, because that nutrient is counted as zero. Use the manual override fields to type numbers from your supplier's spec sheet or package.

5. Pick a format and download

The standard vertical panel fits most packages. FDA also allows a tabular (side-by-side) layout for packages without room for a tall panel, and a linear (one-paragraph) layout for very small packages. 21 CFR 101.9 paragraph (j)(13) explains when those smaller formats can be used. Pro adds clean PNG and PDF downloads of all three formats, plus a combined print-ready label with Nutrition Facts, ingredients, allergens, net weight and your business name in one image.

Do you even need a Nutrition Facts label?

Not always. FDA exempts many small businesses: retailers with low annual sales, and low-volume products from firms with fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees selling fewer than 100,000 units of that product a year (some of them must file a notice with FDA). See the FDA small business nutrition labeling exemption page and 21 CFR 101.9 paragraph (j). Two catches: the exemption disappears if you make a nutrient content or health claim on the package (such as "low fat" or "good source of fiber"), and it never covers ingredient and allergen labeling. Cottage food sellers also need to follow their state's label rules. Our free ingredient label maker and cottage food label maker cover those parts.

How accurate is a calculated label?

FDA lets you determine nutrient values by calculation from databases as well as by lab analysis, but you are responsible for the label being accurate. A database calculation is an estimate: brands differ from USDA averages, and cooking changes water and fat content. Calculated labels work well for typical home-bakery products. If your product is unusual, makes claims, or is sold at large scale, a lab analysis is the safer choice. Learn more about what each line means on our Nutrition Facts label guide.