Article up to date as of 02/17/2023
You’ve decided on what type of bottles you want to use and are ready to start designing your labels…this is the fun part!
Labels are a big part of your identity as a brand. The font, decoration, placement, and the colors used, play an important role in the unique impression that labels give your business.
What’s not so fun is trying to figure out what is required by the FDA and where on the label you need to place it.
Note: This How to Write a Juice Business Plan PDF is a step-by-step guide to helping you write a business plan for your juice business. Download it for free!
Let’s break it down with a quick list of guidelines and informative infographics:
- Name & address of kitchen location must be included. Download and review the FDA’s Food Labeling Guide for specifics.
- List ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight.
- Small businesses (annual gross sales not more than $500,000) do not need to label nutritional information, read the FDA’s requirements on page 26 of the FDA’s Labeling Guide and this FDA Guidance Document to determine if you fall under the exemption.
- The total percentage of juice must be included. If you are using a nutritional label, it must be on that panel (the information panel), near the top. If your juice bottle does not contain an information panel, the percent of juice must be placed on the front /main label.
- Disclaimer for nut allergies, worded exactly as below:
“This product is produced in a facility that also processes tree nuts.” - All raw, unpasteurized juice must include this disclaimer, worded exactly as below:
“WARNING: This product is not pasteurized and, therefore may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems.”
See the FDA’s Guidance Regulation for more detailed instruction if needed, and communicate with your local health department for final review and approval.
If you still need to decide on what type of bottles to use, read our blog article here and check out our Bottles App – the quickest and easiest way to get bottles delivered right to your door!
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Comments
Many thanks.keep up the good work
Do you have any recommendations on where to print labels.
Hi Damarco, I know quite a few use Stickermule for juice bottle labels, and we use them for stickers as well, great company! Check out our juicing Facebook group to ask what other people are doing https://www.facebook.com/groups/407299067217191 There is also a bottle label topic on there already!
Greetings - I created a hibiscus tonic and there is a small coop in my neighborhood that is interested in carrying my product. I'm currently working on the label. Based on what I read in your article, I would only need to include the ingredients and not necessarily the nutritional value contents according to the FDA regulations. Is this correct? I appreciate your time and assistance. -- Elilta Tewelde
Hi Elilta, As long as your business qualifies as a "small business" according to the FDA, you do not need nutritional facts on the label. Here is the quote from FDA on what qualifies as a small business:
The nutrition labeling exemptions found in 21 CFR 101.9(j)(1) and 21 CFR 101.36(h)(1) apply to retailers with annual gross sales of not more than $500,000, or with annual gross sales of foods or dietary supplements to consumers of not more than $50,000. For these exemptions, a notice does not need to be filed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).You can find that here: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/small-business-nutrition-labeling-exemption-guidance
Greetings, How would I label almond milk as far as percentages go?
As long as you're not labeling your almond milk as "juice", you do not need the percentages. However, you will want to pay attention to pages 22-24 of the FDA food labeling guide (https://www.fda.gov/media/81606/download) where it explains that for foods containing "major food allergens" such as tree nuts, you do need to label that in a specific way (ie: Contains Almonds), as well as include the ingredients listed in order of predominance by volume. Please refer to the labeling guide for where this information is supposed to be placed on your label. For examples, I would look at some of the existing nut milk manufacturers labels like this one here: https://elmhurst1925.com/collections/unsweetened/products/unsweetened-milked-hazelnuts
Thanks for this informative article. Can you please advise where I can find the GDA guidance requiring to list kitchen location address on an unprocessed juice label? I cannot find it. Thanks
Hi Michuel, Glad you found it helpful! You can find the FDA guidance you are looking for on this page: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/guidance-industry-food-labeling-guide It has a downloadable label guide, which you can also find here: https://www.fda.gov/media/81606/download In this guide under general food labeling requirements on page 6 is the requirement for the location to be on the label. For other juice label requirements, see page 8.
Hi We are small juice shop in NYC. Only selling on the location now but planning to sell it to other stores and cafes. What are the regulations for that? We sell unpasteurized juice. Do we need to pasteurize it to sell to others. And how can we count all the nutrition facts? Thank you
Hi Vera, Yes, according to FDA regulations, you will need to pasteurize the juice in order to wholesale and sell to others. You can read more on the FDA website and also our blog article that talks about what is needed to run a wholesale operation here: https://www.goodnature.com/blog/four-basic-models-cold-pressed-juice-business/. As far as getting the nutrition facts, the reputable software program is quite expensive, so we purchased it to be able to offer the service to our clients at a more affordable rate, you can find information on that here: https://www.goodnature.com/blog/goodnature-now-offers-nutritional-analysis-labeling-cold-pressed-juice/
I did contact my local health department and they said whatever the FDA requires is what I need to do for my labels. They didn't know what that was and figuring it out from the FDA has been difficult. Thank you for your helps guys, I really appreciate it!
I've tried calling the FDA and no answer, their website is incredibly hard to understand as well. I am a small juice bar business, that will be producing and selling bottled juice in the same location. *do I have to put the store address on the label? As well as the nut disclaimer and warning sign? * Also if my juice is 100% cold pressed juice but I add a tsp of cayenne pepper does that change the "100 % juice"? * I purchased the x-1 mini, can't wait to use it! Should I whisk or blend things like cayenne & spirumina into the juice batch? Thank you for your help!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you tried contacting your local health department? That is what I would recommend. The specific labeling requirements will depend on what the local health inspector says. You can certainly add any powders to the juice after you make the juice. You may want to try just adding real cayenne peppers to the recipe. I will let Ari chime in here with advice on the 100% juice question, but I think that's ok as long as what your adding to the juice is 100% fruit or vegetable.
Hi, I have been doing extensive research on the FDA site. If I choose to just label my bottle with my company logo is this acceptable. I understand that the ingredients and warning label must be printed but I have seen some juice bar not do such(which regulations are they getting their guidance from if any). Also if I just wanted to have a my label printed on the bottle is using the bottle neck tags with all the necessary information acceptable. I would like to know all my potential options.
Usually if you are just selling direct to consumer from the location the juice is being made, you don't need the full nutritional labeling. You will have to work with your local health inspector to ask what is acceptable for your location.
This article was extremely helpful! Just want to make sure, for the 100% juice part, any filtered water we add to the juice we have to recalculate that percentage correct? And how do we calculate the new percentage, is it just by proportions? Thanks in advance.
Thanks Stephen! Yes, you are correct. You would need to recalculate the percentage by dividing the weight of the water by the total finished weight of fluid in the bottle and multiply by 100. This is the percentage of the water, so you would then take that percentage and subtract from 100% to figure out your percentage of juice. For example if you're adding 2 oz of water to a 16 oz bottle and the rest is filled with juice, you would calculate: 2 divided by 16 x 100 = 12.5% (water), 100% - 12.5% = 87.5% Juice
Hi, and thanks for the info! Where can I begin the search for help with designing my labels for class bottles, ensuring I have all the necessary info included. Are there templates online somewhere? Companies that specialize in this? Thanks in advance!
Hi Lacy, Large print houses like Weber Packaging Solutions handle large quantity juice label printing and automation. For smaller quantities, online suppliers like Sticker Mule make it quick and easy to get your labels fast. Before you design, or have your labels designed, make sure to get the necessary label requirements from your local health department. Our on staff Juice Business Consultant, Ari, can help you with creating your nutrition labels. You can submit your recipes here or email him to discuss, [email protected].
I see a lot of businesses use paper tags around the neck of the bottle. Is that ok with the FDA? Labels are really expensive and was thinking that may be a reason those businesses are doing that.
Sometimes the health department requires an actual label. If you are just making juice and selling it direct to consumer at one location, they are usually more flexible and will allow the use of tags.
We at Katie’s Coldpress are longtime followers of Goodnature and use an X-1 in the production of our organic cold-pressed juice. We were happy to see your blog post about juice labeling, because so many companies do not understand that juice labeling is regulated at both the state and federal levels. Because our juice is raw and certified organic, we have even more rules to follow, including many required by our certifying agency (CCOF). We struggled with the raw juice warning statement, because the FDA has a couple slightly different versions out there, but the current wording is: WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems. So, the language on the label in your blog is correct (missing only the closing period), but the statement that “All raw, unpasteurized juice must include this disclaimer, worded exactly as below,” is not. Also, FDA requires that the word WARNING “shall appear in bold type" and "the warning statement, when on a label, shall be set off in a box by use of hairlines.” Thanks again for your unfailing support of cold-pressed juice!
Thank you for the detailed comment! I'm sure people will find the information useful
I need help with labeling my produces. Who do I contact?
Hi Delethia, Our on staff Juice Business Consultant, Ari, can help you with creating your nutrition labels. You can submit your recipes here or email him to discuss, [email protected]. Large print houses like Weber Packaging Solutions handle large quantity juice label printing and automation. For smaller quantities, online suppliers like Sticker Mule make it quick and easy to get your labels fast. Before you design, or have your labels designed, make sure to get the necessary label requirements from your local health department.
Hi Would you have similar guidelines for UAE? Regards Neil Gandhi
Hi Neil, We do not currently have guidelines for UAE, but after doing some reading online, I found that there are a number of laws and local council regulations that set the food labeling requirements in the United Arab Emirates. I would recommend contacting your local health department for help with understanding what is required - specifically for juice bottle labels.
Looking for a software program for nutritional value. Is there one you recommend?
Hi Rik, Most of the free ones online are pretty inaccurate and we do not recommend using them. The software we use is approved by the FDA - it is Genesis by ESHA. It is quite expensive to purchase, however, we do offer nutrition labeling per recipe as a service to make it more affordable to those who want quality labels - without the big price tag. You can read more about how it works here.
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