Guide to Nutrition Labels

The Nutrition Facts Panel is your guide to making the most nutrient-rich food choices while staying within your daily calorie budget. You'll find it on most packaged foods in the supermarket and frequently on Nutri-Facts posters and brochures for fresh foods such as produce, fish and meat.

Here's what the Nutrition Facts label shows you:

Serving Size

The serving size for this food is one package. All the nutrition numbers listed are based on this amount. Compare the serving size to the amount you eat and adjust the numbers as needed. For example, if you ate only half the package of this food, you'd divide the numbers shown by two (e.g., 130 calories).

Servings Per Container

Note this number carefully! This package contains one serving, but sometimes even small packages contain more than one serving.

Nutrition Numbers

The label lists the number of total calories and the number of calories from fat in one serving. Also listed are the grams of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein and milligrams of cholesterol and sodium. Sometimes labels list extra information. For example, this label lists the grams of monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat and milligrams of potassium.

Percent Daily Values

These percentages show how much of each nutrient one serving provides in a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet. For this label, one serving of food provides 11% of the total fat and 15% of the calcium recommended for the day.

Hit Your Targets... Not Too High

For nutrients we sometimes get too much of (fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium), your daily goal is to total 100% or less of the Recommended Daily Value. There is no Recommended Daily Value for trans fat, but experts recommend keeping intake as low as possible.

Did You Know?

Some important vitamins and minerals are not required to appear on the Nutrition Facts Label (although the manufacturer sometimes chooses to list them). For example, a serving of beef stew is an excellent source of vitamin B12 and zinc, but the amounts and % Daily Value may not be on the label. To learn about the nutrients in each of MyPyramid's food groups, go to MyPyramid.gov.