Nutritional Labeling: Meeting Regulatory Requirements for Frozen Meal Manufacturers
Frozen meal manufacturers are required to follow a set of governmental guidelines for nutritional labeling. Accurate and thorough nutritional labeling allows customers to understand what they’re getting in a meal. This labeling conveys critical information about ingredients and potential allergens, helping customers to decide which frozen products to purchase.
In this article, we’ll review some of these FDA labeling requirements and provide a brief FDA food labeling guide. Keeping current with these guidelines is critical for continued consumer safety. We’ll also explore which frozen food processing equipment can help your brand remain compliant with these guidelines while also improving productivity. Understanding these governmental requirements is key for frozen meal manufacturers to continue making high-quality products ready for consumption.
FDA Food Labeling Guide: FDA Labeling Requirements
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the regulatory body that oversees the production of consumer-safe foods and drugs. The FDA monitors foods made inside and outside the country and can determine whether or not a food or drug product is safe for American consumers.
The FDA enforces regulations such as the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act. Here, we’ll be focusing on the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act in this brief FDA food labeling guide. These FDA labeling requirements ensure that frozen meal manufacturing companies accurately reflect what’s in their food products.
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act
The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act requires that companies label food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical device products with a list of certain information. This information includes:
- Net contents– what the product is made of
- Net quantity– count, weight, or measure in metric and inch/pound
- Identity– what the product is
- Packer– what company packaged the item
- Distributor- what company shipped the item
As an FDA food labeling guide and legal precedent, this Act was created to help consumers make informed decisions on which products to buy. This Act also stops companies from using deceiving information to mislead customers. Frozen meal manufacturers need to adhere to this act so they can accurately represent their frozen products.
Nutrition Labeling and Education Act
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act outlines what companies need to include on their labels regarding a product’s nutritional value. These DFA labeling requirements specify that companies need to include content information such as calorie count, total fat, and saturated fat on the label. This Act requires much more nutrient information to be included on the label– these are just a few of them.
These FDA labeling requirements necessitate different display styles depending on the product package size. Display styles include tabular displays, footnotes, and linear displays, all contingent on the packaging. Thick of a typical nutritional label– this Act is responsible for manufacturer clarity and accuracy of these labels.
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act also guides the type of language used on labels, much like the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. This Act prevents misleading claims to make customers believe a product is healthy due to its nutritional contents. It also covers more guidelines regarding language, such as the use of “Lite,” “Reduced,” and “Rich In” The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act oversees how companies can describe their products, ensuring that the labeling remains truthful and objective.
Both of these Acts keep consumer products safe. Each outlines critical aspects of labeling so that companies can accurately represent their products. Frozen meal manufacturers must understand these standards and adhere to them. At Quantum, we offer frozen food processing equipment that brands rely on to follow these standards.
Meeting Requirements: Utilizing Frozen Food Processing Equipment
Accurate food labeling depends on controlling how your company makes its frozen meals. Ingredient visibility grants frozen meal manufacturers the ability to design their assembly process to brand requirements and accurately label their products. At Quantum, we design the leading automated frozen food processing equipment that companies worldwide rely on. Our automated food equipment streamlines workflows and increases productivity by ensuring quality and consistency. Your brand can find sauce applicators, cheese/topping applicators, meat/pepperoni slicers, and dry/granular ingredient applicators at Quantum.
Sauce Applicators
At Quantum, our Sauce Applicators can be either target or waterfall applicators, as well as cantilevered to fit over existing assembly lines. Quantum Sauce Applicators can also dispense sauces over multiple lanes for maximal efficiency. With comprehensive user controls, brands can specify the amount of sauce per product and easily adhere to labeling guidelines.
Cheese/Topping Applicators
Our Cheese/Topping Applicators can dispense shredded cheeses, as well as IQF ingredients, vegetables, and dry ingredients through waterfall application. The versatility of our automated food equipment allows manufacturers to incorporate a wide variety of ingredients into their meals while also offering ingredient visibility.
Meat/Pepperoni Slicers
Quantum Meat/Pepperoni Slicers can slice and apply stick meats such as pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and sausage to meet brand requirements. By applying the designated number of slices and the slice design, our Meat/Pepperoni slicers provide aesthetic control of how each product looks. These features offer the ingredient control necessary to accurately record information on food labels.
Dry/Granular Ingredient Applicators
Our Dry/Granular Ingredient Applicators also provide high versatility, as they can dispense dry ingredients, granules, spices, seeds, salt, and similar ingredients. Quantum offers cantilevered designs for quick implementation. Brands can easily switch between ingredients without unnecessary effort. Like our other equipment, Quantum Dry/Granular Ingredient Applicators offer ingredient visibility and oversight that facilitates proper nutritional labeling.
Easily Maintain Compliance With Quantum
Quantum Technical Services creates automated food equipment that not only streamlines production, but also simplifies compliance with regulations. With comprehensive user controls, our automated food equipment is easy to operate and maintain in order to remain compliant with governmental food standards. Contact our team at Quantum today so we can offer engineered solutions for your frozen meal manufacturing line.