What’s required, how to create one, and where food manufacturers get it wrong
Most packaged food products sold in Australia and New Zealand need a nutrition information panel. It’s one of the most fundamental food labelling requirements in both countries, mandated by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. And yet, getting it right is harder than most people expect.
This article explains what a nutrition information panel (NIP) is, what it must contain, how to create one from your recipe data, and the common mistakes that lead to non-compliant food labels. Whether you’re a food technologist at a large manufacturer or a small business owner putting your first product on a shelf, the requirements are the same.
What is a nutrition information panel?
A nutrition information panel is the standardised table on a food label that shows the nutritional content of a packaged food product. In Australia and New Zealand, the format and content of the NIP are prescribed by Standard 1.2.8 of the Food Standards Code, administered by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).
The NIP tells consumers what’s in the product on a per-serving and per-100g (or per-100mL) basis. The per-serving column helps consumers understand how much of a nutrient they’re consuming in a typical portion. The per-100g column is what makes comparison possible: because serving sizes are determined by the food business and vary between products, the per-100g figure standardises the measurement so consumers can evaluate similar products on equal terms.
The NIP isn’t optional for most packaged foods. There are limited exemptions (very small packages, foods sold unpackaged, some single-ingredient products), but if your product is packaged and sold in Australia or New Zealand, the default position is that it needs a nutrition information panel.
The panel works alongside other mandatory food label elements: the ingredient statement, allergen declarations, Country of Origin labelling, and (increasingly) the Health Star Rating. Together, these form the information that Australian consumers and regulators expect to see on every packaged food product.
What must a nutrition information panel contain?
The Food Standards Code specifies which nutrients must appear on a NIP and the format they must follow.
Mandatory nutrients (Standard 1.2.8):
- Energy (in kilojoules, with the option to also show calories)
- Protein (in grams)
- Total fat (in grams)
- Saturated fat (in grams)
- Carbohydrate (in grams)
- Sugars (in grams)
- Sodium (in milligrams)
These seven values must appear on every NIP, presented both per serving and per 100g (or per 100mL for liquids). The serving size must be declared in grams or millilitres along with the number of servings per package.
Each of these nutrients is included for a reason. The required values reflect areas of nutritional significance recognised by food regulators and public health authorities. Presented in a standard format, they allow consumers to make meaningful comparisons between products and thus, more informed food choices.
Additional nutrients can be added voluntarily, and some become mandatory in specific circumstances. If you make a nutrition content claim on your label (for example, “high in fibre” or “source of calcium”), you are legally required to list the amount of that nutrient on the NIP. These claims must also meet strict government criteria defined in the Code. It’s worth noting that a product labelled “low fat” may still contain more kilojoules than a similar product without that claim, which is exactly why the NIP exists: it gives consumers the full picture, not just the headline. Common voluntary additions include dietary fibre, potassium, calcium, iron, and various vitamins.
Formatting rules are specific. The panel must be presented in a prescribed tabular format. Column headings, units of measurement, and the order of nutrients are all defined by the Code. This isn’t a layout you design. It’s a format you follow.
What the numbers mean: nutrient benchmarks consumers use
For food manufacturers, understanding how consumers interpret NIP values is as important as getting the numbers right. Dietitians and public health guidelines give consumers simple per-100g benchmarks for comparing products. If your product development team is working toward a reformulation target or a Health Star Rating improvement, these are the thresholds that matter.
As a general guide, when comparing similar products per 100g, the Food Standards Code Schedule 4 outlines:
- Sodium: less than 400mg is a reasonable choice; less than 120mg is considered low sodium and better for heart health
- Saturated fat: less than 2g per 100g is a healthier option
- Total sugars: less than 15g per 100g is a healthier choice
- Dietary fibre: more than 5g per 100g is considered a good source
When comparing similar products, the recommendation is always to look at the overall nutritional value rather than focusing on a single nutrient. A product might score well on one measure and poorly on another. The NIP gives consumers the data to assess the full picture, which is also why looking at these benchmarks in combination matters more than hitting any single target.
How to create a nutrition information panel
This is where most online guides stop: they explain what a NIP is but not how to actually produce one. For food manufacturers, the practical question is always “how do I get from my recipe to a compliant panel on my packaging?”
There are three main approaches.
1. Laboratory analysis
Send your finished product to an accredited food testing laboratory. They analyse the product and provide a certificate of analysis with the nutritional values you need for your NIP.
This is the most defensible approach for audit purposes, but it’s also the most expensive and the slowest. Every product needs its own analysis. Every reformulation needs a new analysis. For manufacturers with large product ranges or frequent recipe changes, lab testing every product is impractical and costly.
2. Calculation from recipe data
Calculate the nutritional content of your product from the known nutritional values of each ingredient, proportioned according to your recipe. This is the approach most food manufacturers use for the majority of their products.
The calculation requires accurate nutritional data for every raw material in your recipe. That data typically comes from supplier specification sheets, food composition databases, or a combination of both. You then calculate the weighted nutritional contribution of each ingredient based on its proportion in the recipe, accounting for any yield factors, moisture changes, or nutrient losses during processing.
This is where a nutrition information panel calculator becomes essential. Doing this manually in a spreadsheet is technically possible, but it’s slow, error-prone, and difficult to maintain when recipes change, suppliers change, or you need to recalculate across your full product range.
3. Using a combination
Many manufacturers use calculation as the primary method and lab analysis for validation on selected products, particularly new product launches or products where the nutritional claims on the label need to be defensible under scrutiny. This gives you the efficiency of calculation with the assurance of laboratory verification where it matters most.
The practical challenges of NIP creation
Understanding the requirements is one thing. Producing compliant nutrition information panels consistently across a full product range is another. These are the challenges food manufacturers deal with in practice.
Sub-recipes and compound ingredients. Most food products aren’t a simple list of raw materials. They contain sauces, marinades, spice blends, and other compound ingredients that are themselves recipes. Your NIP calculation needs to account for the nutritional composition of every sub-recipe and roll it up into the final product. Miss a level of ingredient detail and the numbers on your panel won’t be accurate.
Supplier data quality. Your NIP is only as good as the raw material data it’s built on. If a supplier specification sheet is incomplete, outdated, or uses different units or reference points, the error flows through to your panel. Managing raw material data across dozens or hundreds of suppliers is one of the most time-consuming parts of food labelling.
Reformulation cascades. When you change one ingredient in a sub-recipe that’s used across fifteen products, every one of those products needs its NIP recalculated. In a spreadsheet, this is a manual, error-prone process. In labelling software, the change flows through automatically.
Rounding rules. The Food Standards Code specifies how nutritional values must be rounded for display on a NIP. These rules vary by nutrient and by value range. Rounding errors are one of the most common sources of non-compliance, particularly when calculations are done manually.
Per-serving vs per-100g discrepancies. The per-serving and per-100g columns on a NIP are independently rounded, which means they don’t always multiply out exactly. This is correct behaviour under the Code, but it confuses manufacturers who try to check one column against the other and assume there’s an error.
“Less than” declarations. When a nutrient value falls below a certain threshold, the Code permits or requires a “less than” declaration rather than a specific number. Knowing when to use these and how to format them correctly is another detail that catches people out.
Common mistakes on nutrition information panels
If you’re producing food labels for the Australian or New Zealand market, these are the errors to watch for.
Using international nutrition label formats. The Australian NIP format is different from the US Nutrition Facts panel and the EU nutrition declaration. Different nutrients and nutrient definitions, different units (kilojoules not calories), different rounding rules, different formatting. An international nutrition label template or generator that hasn’t been configured specifically for the Food Standards Code will produce a non-compliant panel.
Incorrect serving sizes. The Code doesn’t prescribe specific serving sizes for most products, but it does require that the declared serving size be a reasonable representation of how the product is normally consumed. Unrealistically small serving sizes that make the nutritional values look better are a compliance risk.
Stale nutritional data. If your raw material data hasn’t been updated when a supplier changes their formulation, your NIP is based on the wrong numbers. This is particularly common when manufacturers store nutritional data in disconnected spreadsheets rather than a centralised system linked to their recipes.
Missing mandatory nutrients. All seven mandatory nutrients must appear. Omitting one, even accidentally, makes the panel non-compliant.
Incorrect nutrient order. The Code specifies the order in which nutrients must appear on the panel. This isn’t alphabetical. It follows a prescribed sequence, and deviating from it is technically non-compliant.
What happens if your NIP is wrong?
A non-compliant nutrition information panel isn’t a minor issue.
For manufacturers supplying to major retailers, a labelling error can result in product rejection at the point of submission, delays to your launch timeline, and the cost of reprinting packaging. Retailers have their own compliance review processes, and a NIP that doesn’t meet the Food Standards Code won’t pass.
For products already on shelf, an incorrect food label can trigger a recall. The financial and reputational cost of a recall far exceeds the cost of getting the label right in the first place.
And with FSANZ enforcement, a non-compliant label is a breach of the Food Standards Code. Penalties vary by state and territory, but the regulatory framework gives enforcement agencies the power to act.
None of this is theoretical. Food labelling errors are one of the most common reasons for product recalls in Australia.
Using software to generate nutrition information panels
If you’re producing more than a handful of products, labelling software replaces the spreadsheet-and-manual-calculation workflow with something faster, more consistent, and less prone to error.
A nutrition information panel calculator built into your recipe management workflow means you enter your raw material data once, build your recipes, and the NIP is generated automatically. When a recipe changes, the panel updates. When a sub-recipe is modified, every product that uses it recalculates. The rounding, formatting, and nutrient ordering are handled by the software, not by you.
For manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand, the critical question when evaluating labelling software is whether it was built for the Food Standards Code or adapted from an international tool. An international nutrition label generator configured for the Australian market can produce panels, but the compliance logic, the formatting rules, the rounding, and the category-specific requirements all need to be correct for this market specifically. The more those rules are built into the software rather than layered on top, the less you have to verify manually.
Foodworks Nutrition Labelling generates nutrition information panels directly from your recipe formulations. The NIP is one part of a broader labelling workflow that also produces Health Star Ratings, allergen statements, ingredient statements, and Country of Origin labels, all from the same recipe data, all compliant with the Food Standards Code. When you adjust a recipe, every label output updates in real time.
→ Try Foodworks Nutrition Labelling free for 14 days
Beyond the NIP: other food labelling requirements in Australia
A nutrition information panel is one component of a compliant food label. If you’re producing packaged food for the Australian and New Zealand market, the other mandatory elements include:
Ingredient statements. A complete list of ingredients in descending order of weight, meaning the first few ingredients listed make up the bulk of the food. This includes compound ingredients and characterising ingredients, all formatted to Food Standards Code requirements.
Allergen declarations. Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) is now the standard, with specific requirements for how allergens are declared, including individually regulated tree nuts and mollusc/crustacea.
Country of Origin labelling. Mandatory for food sold in Australia, including the percentage of Australian content, text statements, and the kangaroo-in-a-triangle standard mark where applicable.
Health Star Ratings. A front-of-pack rating system that provides a quick way to compare the healthiness of packaged foods within the same category, with ratings ranging from half a star to five stars. Currently voluntary, but with a formal proposal process underway to make them mandatory. If you’re not already generating Health Star Ratings for your products, now is the time to start.
→ Read our guide to Health Star Ratings in Australia and New Zealand (link to /blog/health-star-ratings-australia-new-zealand/)
Each of these has its own set of requirements under the Food Standards Code. The advantage of generating them all from the same recipe data is consistency. Your NIP, your ingredient statement, your allergen declaration, and your Health Star Rating all trace back to the same formulation. Change the recipe once, and every label element updates.
Frequently asked questions about nutrition information panels
Do all food products need a nutrition information panel in Australia?
Most packaged food products sold in Australia and New Zealand require a NIP under Standard 1.2.8 of the Food Standards Code. Exemptions exist for very small packages, foods sold unpackaged, single-ingredient products (like fresh fruit and vegetables), and some other specific categories. If you’re unsure whether your product is exempt, check the Code or consult a food regulatory specialist.
What nutrients must appear on an Australian nutrition information panel?
Seven nutrients are mandatory: energy (kJ), protein, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars, and sodium. Additional nutrients can be included voluntarily, and some become mandatory if a nutrition content claim is made on the label.
Can I calculate my NIP from recipe data or do I need lab analysis?
Both approaches are accepted. Most food manufacturers calculate NIPs from recipe data using the nutritional values of their raw materials, sourced from supplier specification sheets or food composition databases. Lab analysis is used for validation on selected products. A nutrition information panel calculator can automate the calculation from your recipes.
What’s the difference between an Australian NIP and a US Nutrition Facts panel?
Different format, different nutrients, different units. Australian NIPs use kilojoules (not calories), require per-serving and per-100g values (US only requires per-serving), and follow a different prescribed nutrient order and rounding protocol. A US nutrition label template cannot be used for the Australian market without significant modification.
How often should I recalculate my nutrition information panels?
Any time a recipe changes, a raw material is substituted, or a supplier updates their specification. If your products are recalculated manually, establish a regular review cycle. If you use labelling software, the recalculation happens automatically when the underlying data changes.
What is a nutrition information panel calculator?
A NIP calculator is software that generates nutrition information panels from your recipe data. You enter your raw materials and their nutritional values, build your recipes, and the calculator produces a compliant NIP. Foodworks Nutrition Labelling is a NIP calculator built specifically for the Australian and New Zealand market.
This article was published in August 2026 and reflects the current requirements of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. For the latest regulatory information, refer to Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
