Nutrition labels for restaurants: two different rules

“I own a restaurant, do I need a Nutrition Facts label?” depends on what you sell. A plated meal and a sealed jar are regulated differently, and mixing the two is a common and expensive mistake.

Menu labeling is not Nutrition Facts

FDA menu labeling is 21 CFR 101.11. It generally applies to restaurants and similar retail food establishments that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name, and it requires calorie and other nutrition information for standard menu items. It is not the black-and-white Nutrition Facts panel.

If you run one or two locations, you may not be covered by the federal menu labeling rule. State and local health departments can still require calorie information. Check with your local authority.

When a restaurant needs a Nutrition Facts label

You need the packaged-food label when the product leaves the kitchen as a packaged good:

• A sauce, salsa, dressing or jam sold in a sealed jar or bottle.
• Granola, cookies, bread or a mix sold at retail or online.
• A product sold through a retailer, co-packer or distributor.
• A product shipped across state lines.

At that point the item is a packaged food, and 21 CFR 101.9 applies: serving size from the RACC, mandatory nutrients, %DV, ingredient list and allergen declaration. The fact that it was made in a restaurant does not change the label requirement.

What to prepare before you design the label

1. The recipe in grams, including the batch size.
2. The finished weight after reduction, baking or cooling.
3. The food category that sets the RACC (sauce, baked good, snack).
4. The packaging format: jar size, number of portions, net weight.
5. The allergen statement: what is in the product and what may be present by cross-contact.

The label is not the menu

A menu calorie count is a single number. A packaged-food label is a standardized panel with serving size, fourteen nutrient declarations, %DV and a footnote. You cannot put the menu number into a template and call it a label, and you cannot put a Nutrition Facts panel on a menu and call it menu labeling.

What to do next

If your product is packaged and sold at retail, use therequirements page to check the elements, thenbuild the label from your recipe. If you only operate a restaurant and do not sell packaged food, start with your state or local health department for menu labeling.

Serving Fact produces US FDA Nutrition Facts panels for packaged foods. It does not produce menu labeling.