The Food and Drug Administration has issued a final guidance to help packaged foods manufacturers comply with the updated Nutrition Facts labeling regulations. The final guidance provides questions and answers on topics related to: (1) the definition of a single-serving container; (2) reference amounts customarily consumed that are used by companies to determine serving sizes; (3) dual-column labeling, including formatting issues for products that have limited space for nutrition labeling; and (4) miscellaneous issues, such as requirements relating to the labeling of chewing gum and multi-unit retail food packages.
For manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales, compliance with the updated Nutrition Facts labeling regulations began on January 1, 2020. During the first 6 months following the January 1, 2020 compliance date, FDA plans to work with manufacturers to meet the new Nutrition Facts label requirements and will not focus on enforcement actions regarding these requirements during that time. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales have an additional year to comply. Manufacturers of single-ingredient sugars, such as honey and maple syrup, and certain cranberry products have until July 1, 2021 to comply with the regulations.
