Nutrition Facts Rounding Checker

Put in the laboratory values; get the numbers the label must print. FDA rounding is not ordinary rounding — every nutrient has its own increments, and each printed number is a legal statement.

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One nutrient per line, unrounded lab values. Add "/ declared" to compare against a printed label.

Why ordinary rounding gets it wrong

Total fat goes to the nearest half gram below 5 g and the nearest gram above it. Sodium goes to the nearest 5 mg up to 140 mg and the nearest 10 mg above. Calories go to the nearest 5 up to 50 and the nearest 10 above. A spreadsheet that rounds everything to whole numbers produces a label where several rows are wrong by an amount an inspector can reproduce exactly.

Some values are words, not numbers

Cholesterol between 2 and 5 mg may be stated as less than 5 mg; any gram nutrient below 1 g may be stated as less than 1 g. Printing "5 mg" instead of "less than 5 mg" is a different declaration, not a rounding preference.

Calories are computed before rounding, not after

The regulation says the food factors are applied to the actual amount present — before rounding. Calculating 4/4/9 from the rounded fat and carbohydrate values is a common shortcut, and this tool detects it: when your calorie figure matches the rounded macronutrients exactly but not the unrounded ones, that is what happened.

What this tool does not do

It does not choose your serving size. The reference amounts customarily consumed (RACC) are a separate table in 21 CFR 101.12, and picking the wrong category is a bigger error than any rounding — but it is a judgement about your product, not a calculation. It also does not cover vitamins and minerals, or the EU's own rounding guidance, which works differently.

Every check this tool runs (8 rules)

NFP-001 Declared value does not match the required rounding

Each nutrient has its own rounding increments and thresholds, and they are not ordinary rounding: fat goes to the nearest half gram below 5 g, sodium to the nearest 5 mg up to 140 mg and 10 mg above it, calories to the nearest 5 up to 50 and 10 above. A value rounded the ordinary way is wrong on the label even when it is close.

Fix: Use the value this tool computes; it applies the increment for that nutrient at that level.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-002 Saturated plus trans fat exceeds total fat

Saturated and trans fats are components of total fat, so their sum cannot be larger than it. When it is, either the lab values were transcribed wrongly or the total was rounded before the components were added.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-003 Added sugars exceed total sugars

Added sugars are a subset of total sugars and are declared indented under them. A larger added-sugars figure is arithmetically impossible.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-004 Sugars or fibre exceed total carbohydrate

Total sugars and dietary fibre are both components of total carbohydrate. Either exceeding it means the carbohydrate figure is wrong — it is normally computed by subtraction, so an error upstream lands here.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-005 Calories disagree with the macronutrients

Using the general factors of 4, 4 and 9 calories per gram for protein, carbohydrate and fat, the declared calories should be close to what the macronutrients imply. A large gap usually means one of the four numbers came from a different sample or a different serving size.

Fix: Recalculate the calories from the unrounded macronutrient values, then round the result.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-006 Calories were computed from rounded values

The regulation is explicit that food factors are applied to the actual amount present per serving — before rounding. Computing calories from the rounded fat and carbohydrate figures shifts the result, and it is a difference an inspector can reproduce.

Fix: Compute from the laboratory values, then round the calorie figure once at the end.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-007 Percent Daily Value does not match the value declared

The percent Daily Value is computed from the amount present and the Daily Value for that nutrient, expressed as a whole percent. Total sugars has no Daily Value at all — a percentage next to it is not a rounding error but a value that should not be there.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗

NFP-008 Value falls in a band that has its own wording

Some levels are not printed as numbers: cholesterol between 2 and 5 mg may be stated as "less than 5 mg", and any of the gram nutrients below 1 g may be stated as "less than 1 g". Printing a rounded number instead is a different statement.

21 CFR 101.9 on eCFR ↗