A label that must appear on most packaged foods in many countries, indicating the amount of key nutrients (those that should influence purchasing behavior).
These key nutrients include, depending on regulations:
- Energy content or “Calories”
- Total Fat including Saturated Fat + Trans Fat (US/Canada)
- Cholesterol (US/Canada)
- Total Carbohydrate including Sugars + Dietary Fiber (US/Canada) ++ Added Sugars (US)
- Protein
- Sodium (US/Canada) or Salt (EFSA)
- and sometimes micronutrients…
Values can be established by one of the following methods (from the most to the least accurate):
- chemical analysis of the food
- estimation based on average ingredient values and taking into account yield factors and nutrient retention factors
- reference to a food composition database
It should be noted that there is often a quick guide comparing each quantity to a Daily Value (US/Canada) or Reference Intake (EFSA). Sometimes they are simplified in a nutrition labelling.
Synonyms:
nutrition information, nutrition declaration