Nutrition facts labels indicate the nutritional ingredients, content, nutritional claims, and health claims associated with food, so as to provide consumers with an intuitive overview of food nutrition. These nutrition labels can help us judge the economic value of commodities and their health value, and choose the most appropriate and necessary product from a bunch of products. Understanding food nutrition labels is very important for the public. On February, 2019, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published an official science article to educate consumers (Read more on How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label).
Prepared foods must be labeled, usually on the side or back of the package. While it is voluntary to label certain "conventional" foods, like fruits and vegetables. Notably, the FDA has developed separate labeling regulations for the special product category of dietary supplements, which is different from ordinary food.
Dietary Supplements
The FDA requires that labels for dietary supplements must include a descriptive name, the name and place of business of the product's manufacturer, packer, or distributor, ingredients, and net contents. The "Supplement Facts" nutrition information (referred to as a panel) must also be included to identify the dietary ingredients contained in the product. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act 1994 (DSHEA), dietary supplements must be evaluated for safety and labeling before they are sold to prevent adulteration or mislabeling (Read more on Dietary Supplements).
Why Nutrition Labels Testing?
With the development of society and the economy, people pay more and more attention to the nutritional content. Countries all over the world have formulated their food nutrition labeling standards or regulations. Currently, food labeling is mandatory in more than 10 countries, including China, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Therefore, accurate nutritional analysis is necessary to ensure that nutrition labels comply with labeling regulations and retailer specifications.
Nutritional Labels Analysis
Alfa Chemistry provides you with nutrition labels testing services to ensure reliable & accurate quality and purity of dietary supplements. The specific capabilities for nutritional labels testing are listed below the table.
| Item Name | Specific content involved in nutrition labels |
|---|
| Energy | - |
| Protein | Protein content |
| Fat | Fat content, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, trans fatty acids, cholesterol |
| Carbohydrate | Carbohydrate content, total sugar, reducing sugar, sucrose, maltose, lactose, fructose, glucose |
| Dietary Fiber | Total dietary fiber, soluble dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber |
| Mineral | Sodium, calcium, iron |
| Vitamin | Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin D2, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E |
Different regions have different testing items for nutrition labels, for examples:
- China: Energy, carbohydrate, protein, total fat, sodium.
- North America: Energy, percentage of energy provided by fat, protein, total carbohydrate, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sugar, dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, sodium, calcium, iron.
- Hong Kong, China: Energy, total fat, trans fat, total carbohydrate, protein, total sugar, sodium, calcium.
Why Choose Us?
Alfa Chemistry provides nutritional label testing of dietary supplements to ensure ingredients are as labeled and free from contamination. Our advanced testing equipment can complete all mandatory and non-mandatory nutritional testing items, including energy, carbohydrates, fat, protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
In addition, Alfa Chemistry has a team of experts who can provide label reviews for regulatory compliance. We will not only follow the current regulatory requirements, guide your products through nutritional testing of the target market in order to meet the labeling requirements, but we will also ensure the nutritional declaration of your products complies with all regulatory requirements, in order to prevent adverse events from delaying your product's introduction to the market. If you are in need of nutritional label testing, please feel free to contact us.
Our products and services are for research use only and cannot be used for any clinical purposes.
