U. S. Labeling Guide Reflects Nutrition Labels Changes
Fresh produce has the most amazing nutrition story to tell, and it’s important produce marketers use that story to their best advantage, including through nutrition labeling. Fresh fruits and vegetables offer great flavor, incredible variety, beautiful colors and, arguably, the best nutrition story in all food categories.
To tell that nutrition story, and to comply with U.S. food labeling rules, the long-standing PMA Nutrition & Produce Labeling Guide has been revised to include new rules from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about nutrition labeling published by the agency in 2016. While the original compliance date for these new rules was July 26, 2018, FDA announced in September 2017 that it would extend compliance dates to January 2020 or January 2021 based on manufacturer's annual food sales. FDA said the rules would remain the same; the only thing changing is the compliance date. Produce marketers can use the new label now or they can use the existing label. However, all marketers will have to use the new label come the established extended compliance dates.
Available to members, the guide offers nutrition labels for the top 20 fruits and top 20 vegetables sold in the United States as well as a variety of claims (e.g., health, structure-function) and definitions of various descriptors (e.g., fresh, organic). In addition, the guide details other labeling topics, such as wax labeling, ingredient lists, country-of-origin, menu labeling, and more. If you require nutritional value information for products that are not included in the PMA 2017 Nutrition & Produce Labeling Guide, we created an extract from the USDA Database.
Make the most of the marketing opportunities afforded by the amazing nutrition story of fresh produce by letting consumers know what your products have to offer.
Log in to view PMA Nutrition Labeling Guide and USDA Database.
Please note that the Recommended Daily Value for Vitamin C has been increased by FDA from 60mg to 90mg, effective January 2020. The 2017 Nutritional Labeling Guide Appendix C has been updated on June 28, 2109 to remove the Optional Values: (per serving) as it was not updated to reflect this increased RDI. To determine Values per serving, please use this link and review section VI. Question and Answer on the Declaration of Quantitative Amounts of Vitamins and Minerals.
