Three federal regimes, three sets of fixed wording
Food labels answer to a different part of the same title. The principal display panel of a packaged food must bear a statement of the identity of the commodity as one of its principal features. It must be in bold type, in a size reasonably related to the most prominent printed matter on the panel, and set in lines generally parallel to the base of the package as displayed. The acceptable wording is ranked: the name required by federal law first, then the common or usual name, then an appropriately descriptive term.2
The Nutrition Facts panel is more prescriptive still. The heading itself is fixed wording. The nutrients appear in a required order. It runs from calories through total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, and total carbohydrate, then on to dietary fiber, sugars, protein, and four vitamins and minerals. Several elements are required to be bold or extra bold, the calorie figure must be at least 22-point, and the serving size heading at least 10-point.3
Consumer goods outside food and drugs answer to the Federal Trade Commission. The principal display panel of a consumer commodity must bear a specification of the identity of the commodity as a principal feature, and that specification must not be false, misleading, or deceptive in any respect.4 The net quantity declaration must be separate and accurate, set apart from other printing by specified clear space, and placed within the bottom 30 percent of the panel. Terms such as jumbo, giant, and minimum are not permitted as qualifiers.5
What that leaves an editor to do
A great deal, and none of it is persuasion.
The first task is conformance: checking that the required elements are present, in the required order, with the required wording, and that nothing prescribed has been paraphrased. A required phrase rewritten to read better is a defect, not an improvement.
The second is consistency across the family of documents a product carries. A label, a package insert, a carton, a website page, and a technical data sheet often say the same thing in five slightly different ways. Only one of the five is the version that was approved. Editors Canada places that work inside copy editing, which it defines to include checking for and correcting errors and inconsistencies and checking mechanical consistency.6
The third is what remains after the regulated text is fixed. Brand copy, usage suggestions, storage guidance beyond the required minimum, and the material on the front of the package are all editable prose, and they sit inches from text that is not. Keeping the two apart on the page and in the file is itself a piece of editorial work.
Where the editor's authority stops, and why it stops there
An editor does not decide which warning a product carries, which ingredient is active, how a nutrient is calculated, or whether a claim is substantiated. Those determinations belong to the manufacturer and to its regulatory, medical, and legal reviewers, and they arrive with the copy.
That boundary is not modesty. Nothing on a regulated label is a writing decision an editor is competent to reverse. An editor who rewrote a required phrase for rhythm would introduce a defect no proofreading pass downstream would catch, because the new wording would read perfectly well.
Everything a client sends is treated in confidence, including artwork, formulations, and regulatory correspondence. EditFast works on product labels and packaging copy as supplied, reports what does not conform to the specification the client provides, and leaves the determinations to the people who make them.
The practical consequence for anyone commissioning this work is worth stating plainly. A label brief that names the governing regulation, supplies the approved wording, and marks which blocks are fixed will get a useful edit. A brief that says make it clearer will get questions.