Are food companies obligated by law to provide nutritional facts about the product?

Question

If so, are they obligated to make it correct or can they lie and say the product has things which it doesn't have?

Answer 1

Section 403(q) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires that packaged foods and dietary supplements bear nutrition labeling unless they qualify for an exemption. The nutrition labeling exemptions apply if the person claiming the exemption employs fewer than an average of 100 full-time equivalent employees and fewer than 100,000 units of that product are sold in the United States in a 12-month period. For these exemptions, a notice must be filed annually with FDA. If a person is not an importer, and has fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, that person does not have to file a notice for any food product with annual sales of fewer than 10,000 total units. The nutritional information must state exactly what is in the product. No more, no less.

Answer 2

yes they are.. even fast food restraunts are supposed to provide nutrtitional contents and facts when the customer asks for it.
They are obligated to make it correct, but people lie all the time, so unless you make the product, then how will you really know? This is why most of the food products i buy are created in the U.S. because other countries have different rules and regulations than we have. I'd rather not take the chance. Seems like we already take so many chances with food here in the U.S.

Answer 3

They must be honest. Right now we have a lot of animals dieing from expensive pet food sold across Canada. Tons of it off the shelves but animals are sick. Having things properly labeled has helped with identifying the source of the problem.

Our labels are in French and English and must contain ingredients in order of % of the product. The government tests these things. They also have, or should have, regular quality testing. I am sure a few things slip through here and there but generally they have to follow the same formula to guarantee uniformity of product.

However. Last week I looked at a food I have never bought before. Nestle Coffee Mate powder. There was regular and "Lite" which claims to be 1/2 the calories of the regular. Someone needs math class. The Lite is 14 cal per tsp and the reg is 16 cal per tsp. I shuddered when I read the ingredients!

It pays to read labels.

Answer 4

Obvisiously they have to wear the label. But their are ways of lieing.

Answer 5

Yes, it is on the label

Answer 6

yes
read up on it at the fda site
they are allow, i think, a 20 percent margin of error.

Answer 7

Yes they are law-required. And, i think they do have to make it accurate.

Answer 8

Yep--Truth.

Answer 9

yes and no

Answer 10

YES