Packaging Editing and Proofreading Services

The smallest print on a food package has a floor, and it is set in 21 CFR 101.2(c). Information carried on the principal display panel or the information panel under that section may "in no case" use letters or numbers "less than one-sixteenth inch in height", absent an exemption under paragraph (f).¹ Part 101 covers food under the FDA, and the agency's own guidance assigns meat from amenable species, including cattle, swine, and domestic poultry, to the USDA.²

Type size for one declaration

The net quantity of contents declaration is measured on a scale of its own. Under 21 CFR 101.7(i)(1) it is set "Not less than one-sixteenth inch in height on packages the principal display panel of which has an area of 5 square inches or less."³ Paragraph (i) steps that minimum up through one-eighth and three-sixteenths inch, then to one-fourth inch above 100 square inches and one-half inch above 400.³ Paragraph (h)(1) limits how far the letters may be condensed: the ratio of height to width may "not exceed a differential of 3 units to 1 unit".³

A placement rule with an exemption attached

Paragraph (f) places that declaration "within the bottom 30 percent of the area of the label panel".³ A proviso then withdraws the requirement for the smallest packages. On packages with a principal display panel of 5 square inches or less, "the requirement for placement within the bottom 30 percent of the area of the label panel shall not apply".³ The exemption holds where the declaration meets the other requirements of the part.

The panel itself is defined by arithmetic

Under 21 CFR 101.1 the principal display panel is "the part of a label that is most likely to be displayed, presented, shown, or examined under customary conditions of display for retail sale."⁴ A designer's preference does not settle which face that is. For a cylindrical container the area is calculated rather than chosen, at "40 percent of the product of the height of the container times the circumference".⁴

The statement of identity carries three requirements, all in one sentence. Under 21 CFR 101.3(d) the statement "shall be presented in bold type on the principal display panel" and "shall be in a size reasonably related to the most prominent printed matter on such panel".⁵ The same sentence requires lines "generally parallel to the base on which the package rests as it is designed to be displayed."⁵ Two of the three are relative: the size to the rest of the panel, the lines to how the package sits.

An order for the ingredients, mostly

Under 21 CFR 101.4(a)(1) ingredients are declared "by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight", with an exception for ingredients exempted by section 101.100.⁶ Paragraph (a)(2) then relaxes the order at the end of the list, where ingredients present "in amounts of 2 percent or less by weight" are grouped under a quantifying statement.⁶ The regulation offers two example forms, "Contains __ percent or less of ______" and "Less than __ percent of ______", and the blank takes 2 percent, or 1.5, 1.0, or 0.5 percent.⁶ Most of the sequence records the formulation; the end of it is a choice.

The stated location for the rest

The required material also has a stated location and an escape clause. Under 21 CFR 101.2(b) it appears "either on the principal display panel or on the information panel, unless otherwise specified by regulations in this chapter."¹ Paragraph (e) then constrains the information panel itself: everything appearing there under that section "shall appear in one place without other intervening material."¹ Copy set between two required items on that panel has separated them.

Nutrition Facts is prescribed down to the point size

Under 21 CFR 101.9(d)(2) the information is presented "under the identifying heading of 'Nutrition Facts'".⁷ Paragraph (d)(1)(iii) sets the "Calories" declaration in bold or extra bold at "no smaller than 16 point", with the numeric amount at "no smaller than 22 point".⁷ The nutrients appear in an order the regulation fixes.⁷

When required wording stops being conspicuous

21 CFR 101.15(a) names reasons why required information may lack "that prominence and conspicuousness required by section 403(f) of the act", and its own "among other reasons" leaves the list open.⁸ Paragraph (a)(4) begins with "Insufficiency of label space".⁸ The paragraph names the cause as "the use of label space for any word, statement, design, or device which is not required by or under authority of the act to appear on the label".⁸ Paragraph (a)(6) names smallness or style of type, "insufficient background contrast, obscuring designs or vignettes, or crowding with other written, printed, or graphic matter."⁸ The FDA collects this material in its Food Labeling Guide, most recently revised in January 2013.⁹

What we read, and what the food scientist and the lawyer decide

Whether a claim may be made, whether a name is the common or usual name, and what belongs in the nutrition panel are questions for the manufacturer's own regulatory and legal review. Those calls are not ours. We do not tell a client whether artwork complies with anything.

What a package says is still checkable on its own terms. An ingredient is named in the ingredient statement, in the nutrition panel, and in the marketing copy, and reading the three together is how a difference between them turns up. Client writing is held in confidence throughout.

Packaging copy is approved once and then printed in quantity, so a correction found after the run has started becomes a decision about the run rather than about the word.