How to Write a Food Label Ingredient List

Lev of ReciPal reports:

"Whether your food business is large or small, you probably need to include an ingredient list on your packaging. While the nutrition fact label has an exemption for small businesses, the ingredient list does not...If you want all the nitty[-]gritty, you can read the FDA code itself...The most important part of an ingredient list is to list each ingredient in descending weight order. That means the most prevalent ingredient goes first, and the ingredient you use the least of in your recipe goes last. Remember that this is based on weight, not volume. Ingredients should be listed using their 'common' names. The example the FDA provides is to use 'sugar' instead of 'sucrose'. You get the idea. If any ingredient has [its] own list of sub-ingredients, those sub-ingredients should be listed in parentheses...Ingredients that are 2% or less of the whole recipe (by weight) do not have to be listed in descending weight order. They can be placed at the end of the ingredient list following a statement like 'Contains 2% or less of ...' or 'Less than 2% of ...'...Certain spices do not have to be declared by name, but can be listed in aggregate and declared simply as 'spices'. So, if your recipe has cinnamon, black pepper, and ginger[,] you can list them all together as 'spices'...Chemical preservatives must also be included along with the function they serve in the recipe, such as 'preservative', 'a mold inhibitor', 'to promote color retention', and a few others...There aren't nearly as many formatting rules for the ingredient list as there are for nutrition labels. It's generally just text laid out below the nutrition label, but there are a few rules to follow. The font needs to be a certain size. The benchmark is that the lowercase letter 'o' has to be at least 1/16th of an inch. It must also be legible and easy to read. As far as label placement, the ingredient list should be on the same part of your label as the manufacturing (or packing or distribution) address. It can be either before or after the nutrition label if your package has one."