It has been a while since I’ve had to give any thought to the format and Fonts of the Nutritional info labels used on food products. This week a couple of people have asked me what the fonts and character size needed to be.
I didn’t have the answer in my head, but the FDA came up with the solution, which I’m happy to share here:
The FDA certainly likes the Helvetica typeface and uses it throughout the label design. As you can see, Helvetica is used throughout the label (although the heading “Nutrition Facts” can also be printed using Franklin Gothic Heavy) in various sizes and in both regular and black versions.
How to Design
A lot of label or print software packages come with templates for the nutritional information that you can populate with the specific data for your products. If you don’t have a template, it is quite easy to create your own design.
How to Print
In many cases, the nutritional information will be pre-printed on your labels, but can also be printed using a number of technologies, such as thermal or thermal transfer – I prefer to use 300 DPI printers, inkjet or laser. TTO overprinters can also be integrated into your packaging equipment to print nutritional information directly to your flexible packaging.
Proposed Changes to Nutritional Labeling
The current Nutrition Facts label has been in use for twenty years and the FDA is currently looking at some changes, intended to help consumers make better decisions. You can read more about this here: Nutrition Labels Proposed Changes.
Changes include showing the amount of added sugars and changes to how portion sizes are shown. Here is the proposed label beside the current one:
Did you know that ID Technology can help with everything that is food Labeling related? We have six label printing plants across North America and we provide labeling and coding equipment for just about every food application.
To get started, call 888-438-3242 Option#3, or contact me directly at [email protected]. We’ll get you in touch with one of our ID Technology specialists in your area.
