How do you write ingredients on labels?

The majority of food product labels have specific guidelines regarding the information that must be stated, where it must appear, and how it must be formatted.

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Writing Your Ingredients List on a Nutrition Label in Three Simple Steps

An ingredient list on a food label, as defined by the FDA, is “the listing of each ingredient in descending order of predominance.” Put more simply, your ingredient list must contain every single ingredient present in your food product, in order of greatest to least. This means the ingredient that makes up the most of the product’s total weight will appear first, followed by the next, and so on. The end of the list should be the ingredient with the least weight.

We have now reached the first stage of creating your ingredient list. To demonstrate the procedure, let’s use chocolate chip cookies as an example:

Weigh each of your ingredients, then list them from heaviest to lightest weight.

Baking soda, salt, sugar, butter, chocolate chips, vanilla, and sodium benzoate

In the same order as above (greatest to least), list any ingredients (sub-ingredients) that have their own list of ingredients in parentheses after the given item.

Flour, Sugar, Butter, Vanilla, Baking Soda, Salt, Sodium Benzoate, Chocolate Chips (Cocoa, Cocoa Butter, Sugar, Soy Lecithin),

List any chemical preservatives with their common names and a brief description of what they do.

Flour, Sugar, Butter, Vanilla, Baking Soda, Salt, Sodium Benzoate to Preserve Freshness, Chocolate Chips (Cocoa, Cocoa Butter, Sugar, and Soy Lecithin).

After completing these three steps, your ingredient list is essentially finished. There are, however, some special rules that may or may not apply to your list. Below are the most universal, but for a more detailed list, consult the FDA Food Labeling Document.

Notable exceptions and additional rules for ingredient lists include:

Water must be listed as an ingredient.

Always use an ingredient’s common name rather than its scientific one (i.e. salt, not sodium).

Spices can be listed individually or as “spices” unless the product is a spice or spice blend.

Added natural and artificial flavors can be listed as “natural flavors” or “artificial flavors” (unless one of the ingredients is one of the eight major allergens).

Color additives exempt from certification (such as naturally derived ones) generally don’t need to be listed by name, but colors not exempt from certification do.

Dairy products such as reconstituted skim milk, dry whole milk, or dried cream can be called “skim milk,” “milk,” and “cream,” respectively.

Bacterial cultures must be declared along with the substrate (what the cultures were grown in) as “cultured milk.”

When in doubt, always be as specific as possible on your ingredient list. The more thorough and detail-oriented you are in listing and naming products, the better.

Required Elements on a Food Label

A product’s name and identification must appear on the PDP.

A food’s common name is referred to as its identity. For instance, since Tortilla Chips is a product name and not a category of food, the company must list it on the Primary Display Panel (front label).

The FDA has defined many food products according to specific standards. These are known as “Standards of Identity,” and they are there to ensure that customers know what they are getting when they purchase something from the grocery store (this is why imitation crab must be labeled as such on crab substitute).

For instance, you cannot label a product as “raspberry jam” if it contains corn syrup and food coloring because “jam” is a term that has specific requirements.

Before creating a product label, it is crucial for producers of food products to comprehend the Standards of Identity.

Consult our guide or the FDA regulations for more details on Standards of identity:

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