If you’re looking for a nutrition label maker for your dietary supplements, you must first ask yourself if your labels will be compliant with the recent FDA nutrition label changes. Keep reading to find out how these changes will affect your supplements’ labeling.
Consumers are becoming savvier with each passing day. Thanks to the Internet and mobile technology, they can easily search for nutrition information right in the store or while shopping on an E-commerce site and make an informed purchasing decision.
This means if you are a supplement company, you must create nutrition labels via a nutrition label maker that clearly describe the contents of your product. But beyond creating clear labels that help shoppers know exactly what your product will do for them, you must also be sure to be compliant with the FDA’s recent nutrition label updates.
What do the FDA’s Latest Nutritional Label Changes Require?
Until 2016, there had not been any changes to the FDA’s requirements for food and supplement nutritional labeling. Why did the government agency suddenly decide to enact these changes? According to their website: “to update the Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods to reflect the latest scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease. The proposed label also would replace out-of-date serving sizes to better align with how much people really eat, and it would feature a fresh design to highlight key parts of the label such as calories and serving sizes.”
On May 27th, 2016, the FDA issued two final rules on nutrition labeling for foods and dietary supplements. How significant are the changes? Well, let’s put it this way, the new rules required 259 and 48 pages respectively, to detail necessary changes for conventional foods and dietary supplements. Let’s take a look at some of the changes that may specifically impact supplement manufacturers.
Calories and Serving Size
The new rules dictate a number of formatting and placement changes to the existing nutrition facts panel, including the display of calories. The new labels now put the calories front and center with much larger and now bold typeface. Along the same lines, the “Serving Size” number has been enlarged so consumers have little chance of missing it.
The Presence of Fluoride and/or Choline
More and more people have become aware that fluoride may not be all it was originally cracked up to be. Some websites and blogs have even pointed out the health dangers of fluoride in toothpaste and our water supply. If your product should contain fluoride, the FDA has ruled that fluoride content may now be disclosed voluntarily. It is mandatory to disclose fluoride content if claims have been made of its presence. Pretty straight forward.
The nutrient choline must also be declared. While it is safe for many people, some may experience an allergic reaction. Again, the FDA has ruled that this can be a voluntary disclosure unless you have actively added it to your product or made claims about its benefits. make sure your nutrition label maker is aware of this change.
Replacing Some Nutrients with Others
The new rules require you to declare potassium and vitamin D in place of vitamins A and C since the FDA has decided that the former are currently more important than the latter for public health. As the FDA states, “some in the U.S. population are not getting enough of [potassium and vitamin D], which puts them at higher risk for chronic disease. Vitamin D is important for its role in bone health. Potassium is beneficial in lowering blood pressure.”
Although they are no longer required on labels, vitamins A and C can still be voluntarily declared by supplement manufacturers.
You will also need to conform when listing folic acid, folate or folacin. That last one is no longer allowed to be used synonymously with folate.
And finally, you must declare the actual amount, in addition to percent DV of vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. You are also free to voluntarily declare the gram amount for other vitamins and minerals as well.
So Long International Units
The FDA’s new rules abandon the International-Unit (IU) potency designations for Vitamins A, D, and E, and replaces them with mcg RAE for Vitamin A, μg for Vitamin D, and mg α-tocopherol for Vitamin E. These changes make for more consistency with the metric potencies for all other vitamins and minerals on the label.
The New Revised (and lengthier) Footnote
There has always been a requirement to footnote the term “% Daily Value.” The new rules now require a longer footnote defining “% Daily Value” on your nutrition label. Except for certain exemptions allowed for calorie-free foods and drinks, that footnote must read: “* The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.” Yes, it does take up more space, which makes it particularly challenging when fitting a small label on a small supplement bottle.
if you are a new supplement company and would like further information about these label requirements, you can visit the FDA website for further reading.
How Do You Find a Nutrition Label Maker?
Now that you are aware of these somewhat new label requirements, you might be wondering how to go about making these labels for your product line. A quick Google search for “nutrition label maker” will bring up a plethora of results.
If you have any questions about labeling your products or how to get started selling your own private label line of nutritional supplements, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We love helping companies make their vision come to fruition.