How to Read a Nutrition Facts Label (Current FDA Format)
Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.
Key takeaways
- Serving size isn’t a recommendation. The FDA says it reflects how much people typically eat or drink. Eat two servings and you double every number, including the %DV.
- % Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet and shows how much one serving contributes to a day’s total of that nutrient.
- 5% DV or less is low; 20% DV or more is high. That one rule does most of the work.
- Added sugars have their own line, with a Daily Value of 50 grams.
- The updated label dropped “Calories from Fat”, made vitamin D and potassium required, made vitamins A and C optional, and enlarged the calories and serving size.
- Big manufacturers had to switch by January 1, 2020, smaller ones by January 1, 2021.
Read it from the top down
The label is designed to be read in order. Here’s what each part tells you, using the FDA’s own definitions.
1. Serving size and servings per container
These two lines sit at the top in larger type for a reason: everything else depends on them.
- Servings per container is how many servings are in the package.
- Serving size is the amount all the numbers below it describe. The FDA is explicit that it “reflects the amount that people typically eat or drink” and “is not a recommendation of how much you should eat or drink” (FDA, How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label).
If you eat more or less than one serving, scale everything. The FDA’s own example: if you eat two servings of lasagna instead of one, double the calories, the nutrient amounts and the %DVs (FDA).
Dual-column labels. Some packages are bigger than one serving but could be eaten in one sitting or several. For those, the FDA requires a dual-column label showing the numbers both per serving and per package (or per unit), so you don’t have to do the math (FDA, Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label).
2. Calories
Calories measure how much energy you get from one serving (FDA). On the current label the number is in large, bold type. The FDA’s general nutrition advice uses 2,000 calories a day as a reference, and your own needs may be higher or lower.
3. The nutrients and their % Daily Value
Below calories are the nutrients, each with an amount in grams or milligrams and, for most, a % Daily Value (%DV).
What %DV means. Daily Values are reference amounts of nutrients to consume, or not to exceed, each day. The %DV shows how much of that daily amount one serving provides, based on a 2,000-calorie diet (FDA, Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels). The label’s footnote says the same thing in one line: “The % Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.”
That’s why %DV is more useful than grams for a quick read. Is 480 milligrams of sodium a lot? The %DV tells you it’s about a fifth of the day’s Daily Value of 2,300 milligrams.
The 5%/20% rule. The FDA’s quick guide: 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is low, and 20% DV or more is high (FDA). You don’t need to memorize a single gram figure to use it.
Which way you want the numbers to go. The FDA groups the nutrients like this:
| Aim for more (higher %DV) | Aim for less (lower %DV) |
|---|---|
| Dietary fiber | Saturated fat |
| Vitamin D | Sodium |
| Calcium | Added sugars |
| Iron | |
| Potassium |
Source: FDA, How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label.
Two lines without a %DV. Trans fat and Total Sugars don’t show a %DV. The FDA says experts couldn’t set a reference value for trans fat, and no recommendation has been made for the total amount of sugars to eat in a day (FDA).
Some current Daily Values
These are the reference amounts behind the percentages for adults and children 4 and older:
| Nutrient | Daily Value |
|---|---|
| Saturated fat | 20 g |
| Sodium | 2,300 mg |
| Dietary fiber | 28 g |
| Added sugars | 50 g |
| Vitamin D | 20 mcg |
| Calcium | 1,300 mg |
| Iron | 18 mg |
| Potassium | 4,700 mg |
Source: FDA, Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.
Added sugars, explained
The current label shows Total Sugars and, indented beneath it, Includes X g Added Sugars with its own %DV (FDA, Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label).
- Total Sugars includes sugars that occur naturally, such as those in milk and fruit, plus any added sugars.
- Added Sugars are sugars added during processing (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), and sugars from syrups and honey, among others. They don’t include the sugars naturally present in whole foods (FDA, Added Sugars on the Nutrition Facts Label).
The Daily Value for added sugars is 50 grams a day on a 2,000-calorie diet, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping added sugars under 10% of daily calories (FDA). The same 5%/20% rule applies.
A plain yogurt and a flavored one might show similar Total Sugars from the milk, but very different Added Sugars. That second line is the one that tells them apart.
Single-ingredient sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup are labeled a little differently, so it’s clear no sugar was added to the honey itself (FDA).
What changed in the updated label
If you learned to read labels before about 2020, these are the differences. All are from the FDA’s summary, Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label.
| What changed | Old label | Current label |
|---|---|---|
| Calories and serving size | Same size as other text | Larger type; calories and serving size in bold |
| Calories from Fat | Listed | Removed, because the type of fat matters more than the amount |
| Added sugars | Not listed | Listed in grams and %DV |
| Vitamin D and potassium | Not required | Required, with the actual amount as well as %DV |
| Vitamins A and C | Required | Optional |
| Calcium and iron | Required (%DV) | Still required, now with the actual amount as well as %DV |
| Daily Values | Older reference amounts | Updated for nutrients including sodium, dietary fiber and vitamin D |
| Serving sizes | Older reference amounts | Updated for some foods (examples below) |
| Footnote | Older wording | Rewritten to explain what %DV means |
Two serving-size examples the FDA gives: ice cream went from 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup, and soda from 8 ounces to 12 ounces. The FDA is clear these reflect how much people actually eat and drink, not how much they should.
When the new label became required
- Manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales: January 1, 2020.
- Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales: January 1, 2021.
- Most single-ingredient sugars, such as honey and maple syrup, and certain cranberry products: July 1, 2021.
Source: FDA, Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label.
So if you still see “Calories from Fat” on a package today, it’s old stock or an exception, not the current format.
A 30-second routine at the store
- Check the serving size and how many you’ll really eat.
- Glance at calories for that amount.
- Run down the %DV column with the 5%/20% rule: high is good for fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium, and a warning for saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
- Compare like with like. The FDA suggests using %DV to compare products, after making sure the serving sizes are the same (FDA).
Labels also help with cost. Once you know the serving size, you can work out what a serving really costs; see how to compare unit prices and how to spot shrinkflation, where a smaller package quietly changes the servings per container.
What about the food you cook?
Packaged food comes with a label; a homemade chili doesn’t. You can build one yourself by adding up each ingredient from USDA’s food composition data and dividing by the number of servings, but it’s tedious. MyFoodManager does that math for your own recipes, computing an FDA-style label from USDA food data. If a recipe you imported or scanned came with its own printed nutrition, that’s kept separately, so you can see both.
Frequently asked questions
What does % Daily Value mean on a nutrition label?
It shows how much of a nutrient one serving provides compared with the Daily Value, a reference amount for the whole day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. For example, 10% DV for sodium means one serving provides 10% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value.
What is the 5/20 rule for nutrition labels?
It’s the FDA’s quick guide to %DV: 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is low, and 20% DV or more is high. Aim high for fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium, and low for saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
What’s the difference between total sugars and added sugars?
Total sugars include sugars found naturally in foods like milk and fruit plus any added sugars. Added sugars are only those added during processing or packaged as sweeteners, including syrups and honey. Added sugars have a %DV based on 50 grams a day; total sugars don’t have a %DV.
Is the serving size on a label how much I should eat?
No. The FDA says the serving size reflects how much people typically eat or drink, not a recommendation. If you eat two servings, double every number on the label, including the %DV.
When did the new Nutrition Facts label come out?
The FDA required manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales to use the updated label by January 1, 2020, and smaller manufacturers by January 1, 2021. Most single-ingredient sugars like honey and maple syrup had until July 1, 2021.
Nutrition for the recipes you actually make
Reading labels is a skill worth five minutes. Building them by hand for every dinner isn’t. MyFoodManager gives your own recipes an FDA-style Nutrition Facts label from USDA data, and keeps them on a meal plan and grocery list in the same place. It runs on the website and it’s free to start.
