EU legislation - Council Directive 90/496/EEC, as amended by Commission Directives 2003/120/EC and 2008/100/EC. This includes an energy contribution of dietary fibre content and updated Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) for vitamins and minerals.

CARAT is used by food manufacturers to prepare nutrition information for product labelling.

Nutrition labelling is not compulsory, unless a claim is made for the product. However, if nutrition information is given, there are two legally permitted formats:

Group 1:	Group 2:
Energy (kJ and kcal)	Energy (kJ and kcal)
Protein (g)	Protein (g)
Carbohydrate (g)	Carbohydrate (g)
Fat (g)	(of which Sugars) (g)
	Fat (g)
	(of which Saturates) (g)
	Fibre (g)
	Sodium (g)

If a claim is made about the sugars, saturates, fibre or sodium content of the product, then the nutrition information must be given in group 2 format.

In some countries such as the USA and Canada, nutrition information is mandatory on most products. Nutrition information must be given per serving, for specified standard serving sizes, along wth percent daily values for a range of nutrients.

This picture shows an example nutrition infomation panel within the EU. If nutrition information is included on the label, data must be given per 100g or per 100ml. Optionally, information may also be given per serving, provided that the serving size is stated. Fibre: the AOAC method is used in many countries and is recommended by the Food Standards Agency for UK product labels. Click here for details.

Front-of-Pack Nutrition Panel Research has shown that the panel which best helps people choose foods for a healthy diet is one that includes: Calories per serving An indication whether the product is "low" (green), "medium" (amber) or "high" (red) for fat, saturates, salt and sugars Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) for calories, fat, saturates, sugars and salt

There are small differences in the way that some nutrients must be expressed for nutrition labelling within the EU compared with UK food composition tables. For example, for nutrition labelling, carbohydrate must be expressed as an absolute value, whereas in the food composition tables carbohydrate is expressed as a monosaccharide equivalent. There are also small differences for energy, protein and sugars contents.