Label format — layout, type size, and placement rules
Updated July 2026 · Reviewed against 21 CFR 101.9(d) and 101.1-101.2
A food label has two very different kinds of rules: the Nutrition Facts panel itself, which is fixed almost down to the point size and rule weight by 21 CFR 101.9(d), and everything else on the package, which is regulated for content (what must appear) but not exact layout. Knowing which is which saves a lot of back-and-forth with a printer or a marketplace's label reviewer.
The Nutrition Facts panel's type sizes have real floors — the title "Nutrition Facts" and the calorie count have the largest minimum type size on the panel, with the nutrient rows scaled down from there — and its column order, rule placement, and bolding are not a design choice. The principal display panel (the front-of-pack "face" a customer sees on a shelf), by contrast, has required content — product identity/statement of identity and net quantity of contents both need to appear there — but real layout freedom in font, color, and imagery around that content.
A full walkthrough — the exact type-size floors by package size, where the Nutrition Facts panel is allowed to go on smaller packages, and principal-display-panel placement rules — is coming soon to this guide.
This guide explains FDA’s labeling rules in plain language. It isn’t legal advice — when in doubt, check with your state department of agriculture or a food-labeling attorney.