Is nutritional labeling software acceptable for nutritional statements
Hi. We use a nutritional labeling software to develop the nutrition statements for the labels of our various product formulations. Is this sufficient, or are analytical analyses required to confirm this information?
Hi Frank,
Your situation is typical, however it is always better to have actual analytical data. Sending out a sample for nutrition tends to cost in the neighborhood of $600-1000.
As far as FDA is concerned, all that matters is that the values fall within the required ranges (<20% overlabeling "good" nutrients or <20% underlabeling "bad" ones, see explanation here: http://furfarmandfor...ts-enforcement/), regardless of how you get there. Without testing you don't know how close you would be to laboratory values, which is what FDA would use, however in complex foods the formulation/math approach tends to get you pretty close.
IMEX database values tend to be less helpful for foods in which the processes greatly change their moisture content (moisture content very much impacts nutrient density in variable ways by process), or in foods that have a lot of seasonal crops that may vary in moisture as well.
Thanks FFF!
Our products are liquids in sealed containers that should not change greatly due to processing or during storage. Having well over 100 formulations would make analytical testing quite costly. I may send several out for analysis, the ones most likely to have variation from the calculated values, and compare the results.
Keep us posted on the results! I'm interested to see how they compare.
Will do rebudke
Dear Frank,
With such a high number of formulations it's valuable to use software for the nutrition calculation. To get accurate data you need to keep your input data up to date.
The analyses can confirm your calculated data or help you to refine your software. Or they serve to detect errors in the input data. The frequency is to be determined. You can do spot checks. You do more analyses in the beginning and you can adapt the frequency based on the results. This approach could be written as a procedure in your quality system.
If you do analyses for a customer, you can use the test results for comparison with the calculated values.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your software system.
Kind regards,
Gerard Heerkens
Thanks GerardH. Appreciate the input!
If you plan on sending it out for analytical analysis not only compare prices of companies but also universities. Some universities with a food science department may be able to do it and at a lower cost. We always cost out both, it's been hit and miss. Though one place our local university has been good is giving sound advice and offering food industry classes. Besides this forum, they're the other place I go to.