The New Nutrition Facts Label

The Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods and drinks has been updated to make it easier for you to make informed choices.

What Are Calories?

Calories refers to the total number of calories, or “energy” you get from all sources (carbohydrate, fat, protein, and alcohol) in a serving of a food or beverage.

Calories Go Big

Calories are now displayed in larger and bolder font on the new Nutrition Facts label to make the information easier to find and use.

Make Calories Work for You

To achieve or maintain a healthy body weight, balance the number of calories you eat and drink with the number of calories your body uses.

2,000 calories a day is used as a general guide for nutrition advice, but your calorie needs may be higher or lower depending on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level.

Eating too many calories per day is linked to overweight and obesity. Find out how many calories you need at https://www.choosemyplate.gov/resources/MyPlatePlan.

Size Matters

Serving sizes on the Nutrition Facts label have been updated to better reflect the amount people typically eat and drink. It is not a recommendation of how much to eat. The nutrition information listed on the Nutrition Facts label is usually based on one serving of the food; however, some containers may also have information displayed per package.

You may want to pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the container, so you know the amount of calories and nutrients you are consuming. One package of food may contain more than one serving, so, if you eat two servings you would be getting two times the calories shown on the label.

For example, if you ate one serving of the food shown on the label below, you would be eating 220 calories. And two servings would be 440 calories.

Start with Serving Information

First, look at the serving size and the number of servings per container, which are at the top of the label. The serving size is shown as a common household measure that is appropriate to the food (such as cup, tablespoon, piece, slice, or jar), followed by the metric amount in grams (g).

The nutrition information listed on the Nutrition Facts label is usually based on one serving of the food; however, some containers may also have information displayed per package.

Understand Serving Sizes

Some serving sizes have changed on the new Nutrition Facts label. By law, serving sizes must be based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much they should consume. Serving sizes have been updated to reflect the amount people typically eat and drink today. For example, based on the review of relevant information such as nationwide surveys of the amounts of foods Americans eat, the serving size for soda has changed from 8 ounces to 12 ounces. Visit Understanding Serving Sizes to learn more.

Here are a few other things about serving sizes to keep in mind:

• The serving size is not a recommendation of how much to eat or drink.
• One package of food may contain more than one serving.
• Some containers may also have a label with two columns—one column listing the amount of calories and nutrients in one serving and the other column listing this information for the entire package. Packages with “dual-column” labels let you know how many calories and nutrients you are getting if you eat or drink the entire package at one time.

Putting Serving Sizes Into Action

In the example below, one serving of lasagna is one cup. If you ate two cups, you would be consuming two servings and two times the calories and nutrients shown on the Nutrition Facts label. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package. Then you might ask yourself, “How many servings am I eating or drinking?”

Example
	One Serving of Lasagna	%DV	Two Serving of Lasagna	%DV
Serving Size	1 cup (227g)	-	2 cups (454g)	-
Calories	280	-	560	-
Total Fat	9g	12%	18g	24%
Saturated Fat	4.5g	23%	9g	46%
Trans Fat	0g	-	0g	-
Cholesterol	35mg	12%	70mg	24%
Sodium	850mg	37%	1700mg	74%
Total Carbohydrate	34g	12%	68g	24%
Dietary Fiber	4g	14%	8g	29%
Total Sugars	6g	-	12g	-
Added Sugars	0g	0%	0g	0%
Protein	15g	-	30g	-
Vitamin D	0mcg	0%	0mcg	0%
Calcium	320mg	25%	640mg	50%
Iron	1.6mg	8%	3.2mg	20%
Potassium	510mg	10%	1020mg	20%

• The terms “fat-free” and “no added sugars” do not mean “calorie-free.”
• These food items may have as many calories as the regular versions, or more.
• Always check the Nutrition Facts labels and compare the calories and nutrients in the different versions.