Nutrition facts label
Additionally, there is a requirement for ingredients to be listed in order from highest to lowest quantity, according to their weight.
The label was mandated for most food products under the provisions of the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), per the recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It was one of several controversial actions taken during the tenure of FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler. The law required food companies to begin using the new food label on packaged foods beginning May 8, 1994. (Meat and poultry products were not covered by NLEA, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed similar regulations for voluntary labeling of raw meat and poultry.) Foods labeled before that day could use the old label. This appeared on all products in 1995. The old label was titled "Nutrition Information Per Serving" or simply, "Nutrition Information".
Nutrition facts label
The rules for the new design were finalized on May 20, 2016. Manufacturers were initially given until July 26, 2018 to comply (or July 26, 2019 if they have less than $10 million in annual food sales). A proposed rule by the FDA would extend the compliance deadline to January 1, 2020 (or January 1, 2021 for qualified small business). For food and dietary supplement labeling purposes the amounts of vitamins and nutritionally essential minerals in a serving are expressed as a percent of Daily Value (%DV). Many of the definitions of 100% Daily Value were changed as part of the revision. A table of the old and new adult Daily Values is provided at Reference Daily Intake.