Children 1-3 Years: FDA Nutrition Facts format
Format for children under 4 years. An FDA Nutrition Facts layout under 21 CFR 101.9, generated free with correct rounding and Daily Values.
Reviewed against 21 CFR 101.9 (Nutrition labeling of food) · Page updated September 16, 2026
Nutrition labelling requirements for Children 1-3 Years
Packaged food sold in the United States must carry a nutrition declaration under 21 CFR 101.9 (Nutrition labeling of food). This page covers the Children 1-3 Years format: Format for children under 4 years. A compliant nutrition label declares 15 mandatory nutrients: calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars, protein, vitamin d, calcium, iron and potassium. Values are declared per serving, with serving sizes set by the racc tables in 21 cfr 101.12, with energy in kcal, and sodium rather than salt. The panel is headed "Nutrition Facts". English is required on pack. There is no mandatory front-of-pack warning scheme. NFL builds a print-ready nutrition label from your recipe, applying the rounding rules and reference intakes for the United States automatically, and exports it as PDF, PNG, SVG, JPG or EPS.
Official regulation
Key facts
Which foods use the Nutrition Facts label for children 1 through 3 years
The toddler Nutrition Facts format is mandatory under 21 CFR 101.9(j)(5), in force, for foods other than infant formula that are represented or purported to be specifically for children 1 through 3 years of age. FDA treats this as its own age group, separate from infants and from the adults and children 4 years and older covered by the standard label.
The mandatory declarations are calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugars, added sugars and protein, plus vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium, subject to the declaration rules in 21 CFR 101.9(c)(8).
For foods specially formulated or processed for toddlers, the serving size is based on the amount customarily eaten per occasion by children 1 through 3 years, not by people 4 years and older.
Source: 21 CFR 101.9(b) and (j)(5), eCFR.
Daily Values for children 1 to 3
Percent Daily Values on a toddler label must use the reference values in force for children 1 through 3 years, which are lower than the adult values. Examples are 39 g for total fat, 1,500 mg for sodium, 13 g for protein, 700 mg for calcium and 7 mg for iron.
Protein needs a percent Daily Value on foods for this age group, which is mandatory under 21 CFR 101.9(c)(7). The percentage is calculated from the protein amount corrected for protein quality.
Other vitamins and minerals are voluntary when naturally present, and mandatory when added as a nutrient supplement or when the label makes a claim about them.
Source: 21 CFR 101.9(c)(7) to (c)(9), eCFR.
Toddler label versus infant and adult labels
The toddler label carries the percent Daily Value footnote, which is mandatory, but its second sentence refers to 1,000 calories a day for general nutrition advice instead of the 2,000 calories used on the adult label, under 21 CFR 101.9(d)(9) and (j)(5).
The infant label works differently. It prohibits percent Daily Values for saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, dietary fiber, total sugars and added sugars, and it has no footnote. The toddler label has reference values for saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, dietary fiber and added sugars, so those percentages appear.
When a food is represented for both infants through 12 months and children 1 through 3 years, separate percent Daily Values for each group are mandatory, shown with equal prominence.
What may and may not appear on the children 1 through 3 label
Only the nutrients and components permitted by 21 CFR 101.9(c) may appear inside the panel, which is a mandatory limit in force. Anything else belongs outside the Nutrition Facts box.
The regulation sets no Daily Reference Value for trans fat or total sugars, so those two are declared by amount only, without a percentage. Inventing a toddler percentage for them would not comply.
English is mandatory for required label information under 21 CFR 101.15(c), except for products distributed solely in Puerto Rico or another US territory where another language predominates. If the label uses another language, the required information must also appear in it, and 21 CFR 101.9(d)(14) allows separate panels per language or one panel with the second language following the English.
Source: 21 CFR 101.9 and 21 CFR 101.15, eCFR.
Sources
Primary documents this page was written from, checked 2026-10-03.
How NFL handles it
- Applies the correct rounding rules for every nutrient
- Uses the right Daily Value / Reference Intake table for this jurisdiction
- Renders the required front-of-pack warnings automatically when thresholds are hit
- Handles multilingual labels where required (bilingual EN/FR, EN/ES, Arabic + EN, etc.)
- Exports print-ready vector PDF, PNG, SVG, JPG, and EPS
Deep dives
Common questions
Related formats
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How to generate one
- Open the generator: free account, no credit card
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