Net Quantity of Contents Rules (21 CFR 101.7)
Where the statement sits on the principal display panel, which unit of measure applies, how the dual declaration works, how minimum type size is keyed to panel area, and the words the regulation bans from inside the statement.
Every packaged food sold at retail in the United States has to carry a net quantity of contents label on the front of the pack, and 21 CFR 101.7 governs every part of it: where the statement sits, which unit of measure applies, how tall the letters must be, how much clear space surrounds it, and which words are banned from inside it. One note first. If you have seen 21 CFR 101.105 quoted for a food net quantity declaration, it is wrong: that section is not part of the current Title 21, and the food rule has sat at 101.7 since it was redesignated at 81 FR 59131 on 29 August 2016.
Net quantity is one of the statements that must appear on every retail food package, alongside the statement of identity, the ingredient list, allergen information and the name and place of business. For the full set, see FDA food labeling requirements.
Where the net quantity of contents label goes on the package
Paragraph (e) puts the declaration on the principal display panel, and requires it to be duplicated on each one where a package bears alternate principal display panels. A pouch equally likely to face out either way needs the statement twice.
Paragraph (f) gives the placement rule everyone quotes loosely. The wording is that it "shall be placed on the principal display panel within the bottom 30 percent of the area of the label panel in lines generally parallel to the base on which the package rests as it is designed to be displayed." Three things sit in that sentence.
- It is 30 percent of the area, not of the height. On a rectangular panel the two coincide, because the width is constant: on a 6 inch tall, 4 inch wide front of 24 square inches, the bottom 30 percent of the area is the lower 1.8 inches. On a panel that narrows towards the base, the band holding 30 percent of the area is taller than that.
- Parallel to the base as displayed. If the package is designed to sit on its side, the lines run parallel to that face, not to the bottom edge of the artwork.
- One narrow exception. The proviso in (f) drops the bottom 30 percent requirement for a principal display panel of 5 square inches or less, provided the declaration meets the other requirements of the part. Only position is relaxed.
Weight, fluid measure or count: which term applies
Paragraph (a) allows weight, measure, numerical count, or a combination of count and weight or measure, then narrows the choice. The statement shall be in fluid measure if the food is liquid, and in weight if it is solid, semisolid or viscous, or a mixture of solid and liquid. Dry measure is available only for a fresh fruit, a fresh vegetable, or another dry commodity customarily sold by dry measure. A firmly established consumer usage and trade custom of declaring a liquid by weight, or a viscous product by fluid measure, may be followed instead. The mixture rule catches more products than people expect: canned beans in liquid and salsa in a jar both declare by weight.
Paragraph (b) fixes the units: the avoirdupois pound and ounce for weight, the U.S. gallon of 231 cubic inches with its quart, pint and fluid ounce for fluid measure, and the U.S. bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches with its peck, dry quart and dry pint for dry measure. Volume carries a temperature: frozen food sold frozen is measured at the frozen temperature, refrigerated food at 40 degrees F (4 degrees C), everything else at 68 degrees F (20 degrees C).
Count is the weakest of the three. Under (c), where a numerical count does not give adequate information about the quantity in the package, it must be combined with a statement of weight, measure or size of the individual units: "12 cookies" becomes "12 cookies, net wt 9 oz".
The dual declaration, and what "dual" means in 101.7
The word dual covers two different things here, and mixing them up produces labels that look right and are not. The dual declaration 101.7 actually requires sits inside the US customary system. Under (j), on packages of less than 4 pounds or 1 gallon labeled by weight or fluid measure, the quantity is expressed in ounces first, then, once it reaches 1 pound or 1 pint, followed in parentheses by the larger unit: pounds with any remainder in ounces or a fraction of the pound, or the largest whole fluid units with the remainder below them.
| Quantity | Permitted declaration | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 1/2 pounds | "Net Wt. 24 oz (1 lb 8 oz)", "Net Wt. 24 oz (1 1/2 lb)" or "Net Wt. 24 oz (1.5 lb)" | 101.7(m)(1) |
| 3/4 pound | "Net Wt. 12 oz", no parenthetical, being under 1 pound | 101.7(m)(2) |
| 1 quart | "Net 32 fl oz (1 qt)" | 101.7(m)(3) |
| 1 3/4 quarts | "Net 56 fluid oz (1 qt 1 pt 8 oz)", never "(1 quart 24 ounces)" | 101.7(m)(4) |
| 2 1/2 gallons | "Net contents 2 1/2 gallons" or "2 gallons 2 quarts", not "2 gallons 4 pints" | 101.7(m)(6) |
The order is what people reverse: ounces lead, the larger unit follows in parentheses. The (m)(4) example also bans crossing unit families, since a remainder after quarts goes to pints or fluid ounces, never to "24 ounces" hanging off a quart.
Above the threshold the logic flips: under (k), packages of 4 pounds or 1 gallon or more lead with pounds, or with the largest whole fluid unit. Random packages, one of a lot with varying weights and no fixed pattern, may under (j)(2) be declared in pounds and decimal fractions to two places, as in the "Net Wt. .75 lb" example in (m)(5).
Metric is the other sense of dual, and 101.7 is permissive about it. Paragraph (p) says a separate metric statement is not regarded as a supplemental statement, and that an accurate metric statement may also appear on the principal display panel or on other panels. On its own terms this section permits the metric figure rather than compelling it, and nearly every US package carries it. The statement in the diagram above, "NET WT 12 OZ (340 g)", is the (m)(2) example with 12 avoirdupois ounces converted to the nearest gram.
Three formatting rules finish the section. Under (j)(3) the declaration may run to more than one line, the term "net weight" must be used when stating quantity by weight, and "net" or "net contents" is optional for fluid measure or count, since "Net wt 6 oz" against "6 fl oz" already separates an avoirdupois ounce from a fluid ounce. Under (n) the only permitted abbreviations are wt, oz, lb, gal, pt, qt and fl. Under (d) a common fraction must be in halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths or thirty-seconds, reduced to lowest terms, and a decimal fraction may not run past two places.
Minimum type size is keyed to the area of the principal display panel
Paragraph (i) sets letter height in relationship to the area of the principal display panel, and requires it to be uniform for all packages of substantially the same size.
| Area of the principal display panel | Minimum letter height | At 72 points to the inch |
|---|---|---|
| 5 square inches or less | 1/16 inch | 4.5 points |
| More than 5 but not more than 25 square inches | 1/8 inch | 9 points |
| More than 25 but not more than 100 square inches | 3/16 inch | 13.5 points |
| More than 100 square inches | 1/4 inch | 18 points |
| More than 400 square inches | 1/2 inch | 36 points |
The point column is arithmetic, not regulation, and it hides a trap. The CFR measures letter height, and (h)(2) is precise: heights pertain to capital letters, and where lower case is used it is the letter "o" that must meet the minimum. A font set at 9 points has no 9 point lower case "o", so set the type, print it and measure.
Paragraph (h) adds two geometric limits: the ratio of height to width of the letter may not exceed a differential of 3 units to 1, which rules out the condensed faces designers reach for when space is tight, and where fractions are used each component numeral must meet one half of the minimum height. Where the declaration is blown, embossed or molded on glass or plastic rather than printed, the sizes above increase by one sixteenth of an inch.
All of it depends on the panel area, which 101.1 defines rather than 101.7. For a rectangular package where one entire side can properly be considered the principal display panel side, the area is the height times the width of that side. For a cylinder or near cylinder it is 40 percent of the height times the circumference, and for any other shape 40 percent of the total surface, unless there is an obvious principal display panel such as the top of a circular package of cheese. Exclude tops, bottoms, can flanges, and the shoulders and necks of bottles and jars.
That is where artwork goes wrong. A 3 inch diameter, 5 inch tall jar looks large, but 40 percent of its 9.42 inch circumference times 5 inches is 18.8 square inches, landing in the 1/8 inch band rather than the 3/16 inch band. Our PDP area and type size calculator runs the 101.1 geometry for each shape and returns the 101.7(i) minimum in inches, millimetres and points.
Separation, contrast, and the words you may not use
Paragraph (f) requires the declaration to appear as a distinct item, and quantifies the clear space in units of its own type:
- From other printed label information above or below it, at least a space equal to the height of the lettering used in the declaration.
- From other printed label information to the left or right, at least a space equal to twice the width of the letter "N" of the style of type used in the statement.
Both gaps scale with your own type, so on the 24 square inch front above, at the 1/8 inch minimum, the clear space above and below is 1/8 inch. Paragraph (h) governs how it reads: conspicuous and easily legible boldface type, in distinct contrast to other matter on the package by typography, layout, colour, embossing or molding.
Prominence has a second layer in 101.15, which lists why a required statement can fail the conspicuousness test in section 403(f) of the act: smallness or style of type, insufficient background contrast, obscuring designs or vignettes, and crowding. Under 101.15(b), no exemption resting on insufficiency of label space applies where that insufficiency came from space given to something the act does not require. A crowded front is no defence when your own hero graphic caused it.
Then the wording ban. Paragraph (f) says the declaration shall not include any term qualifying a unit of weight, measure or count that tends to exaggerate the amount of food in the container, and names "jumbo quart" and "full gallon". Paragraph (o) repeats that prohibition for supplemental statements elsewhere on the package, which are otherwise allowed in nondeceptive terms.
Accuracy, drained weight and multiunit packages
Paragraph (g) states the substance: the declaration must accurately reveal the quantity of food in the package exclusive of wrappers and other material packed with it, so interleaving paper, a desiccant sachet and the tray under a cookie do not count. Pressurised containers are the exception, declaring what will be expelled when the instructions on the container are followed, propellant included.
Paragraph (q) gives fillers their tolerance. Reasonable variations caused by loss or gain of moisture during good distribution practice, or by unavoidable deviations in good manufacturing practice, are recognised, and the limit is a standard rather than a number: variations shall not be unreasonably large. Since 101.7 sets no percentage, your fill specification and check-weighing records bound it in practice.
Drained weight appears in 101.7 only in paragraph (t), which is not a labeling format rule. It is the narrow route by which a product whose net weight, drained weight or volume does not reflect the actual contents may still be sold to government institutions, against a signed acknowledgment kept on file for 2 years and a shipping container marked "This Product Not for Retail Distribution". Where a retail label must declare a drained weight, that comes from the standard of identity or standard of fill for that food.
Multiunit retail packages are covered by (s). The outside states the number of individual units, the quantity of each unit, and, in parentheses, the total in avoirdupois or fluid ounces, with no further parenthetical in largest whole units. The regulation's own examples are "6-16 oz bottles (96 fl oz)" and "3-16 oz cans (net wt. 48 oz)". The term covers units of the identical commodity in the same quantity, each capable of being sold on its own in full compliance. When you are checking a finished front panel against everything that belongs on it, the FDA label checklist walks the principal display panel element by element with the citation for each one.
Frequently asked questions
Does the statement always have to be in the bottom 30 percent?
No. Under the proviso in 101.7(f), the bottom 30 percent requirement does not apply where the principal display panel is 5 square inches or less, provided the declaration meets the other requirements of the part. Those packs still need the 1/16 inch minimum letter height, the separation from surrounding print and the contrast.
Does 101.7 require the metric figure in parentheses?
The text of 101.7(p) is permissive: a separate metric statement is not regarded as a supplemental statement, and may also appear on the principal display panel or on other panels. The dual declaration this section does require is the customary one in (j), ounces first with the pound or quart equivalent in parentheses once the package reaches 1 pound or 1 pint.
Can I just print "Net Wt 1.5 lb" on a 24 ounce package?
Not on its own. Under 101.7(j)(1) a package under 4 pounds labeled by weight is expressed in ounces, with the pound form in parentheses. The three forms permitted by 101.7(m)(1) all lead with the ounce figure: "Net Wt. 24 oz (1 lb 8 oz)", "Net Wt. 24 oz (1 1/2 lb)" and "Net Wt. 24 oz (1.5 lb)".
How do I work out the panel area on a jar or a bottle?
Use 101.1, not the label dimensions. For a cylindrical or nearly cylindrical container it is 40 percent of the height times the circumference, excluding shoulders, necks and can flanges. For a rectangular carton it is height times width, and for other shapes 40 percent of the total surface.
Is net quantity the same as the serving size?
No. Net quantity under 101.7 is how much food is in the whole package, exclusive of wrappers. Serving size comes from the reference amounts in 21 CFR 101.12 and drives the Nutrition Facts panel rather than the front of the pack. See FDA serving size requirements for how that one is built.
Which abbreviations am I allowed to use?
101.7(n) gives a closed list, saying the following abbreviations and none other may be employed: wt, oz, lb, gal, pt, qt and fl, with periods and plurals optional. Invented short forms are not permitted.
