The net weight statement, done right

Every packaged food must state how much is inside, the net quantity of contents. It sounds trivial; it's one of the most commonly wrong elements on small-maker labels.

The five rules

1. Net contents only: the weight of the food, never including the jar, wrapper, or tin.
2. Dual declaration: US customary and metric, “Net Wt 12 oz (340 g)”. Either system may come first. This one comes from the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (15 U.S.C. 1453(a)(2)), which calls for “both the customary inch/pound system” and the SI metric system; 21 CFR 101.7 on its own only permits the metric statement, so the customary figure is the one you cannot leave out.
3. Weight vs fluid measure: solid, semi-solid, and viscous foods use weight (“Net Wt”); liquids use fluid measure (“Net 12 fl oz (355 mL)”). Jam is weight; syrup poured as a liquid is fluid ounces.
4. Ounces lead, pounds follow. Under 4 lb (or a gallon) the declaration is expressed in ounces, and from 1 lb up the pound figure goes in parentheses after it: “Net Wt 32 oz (2 lb) 907 g” (21 CFR 101.7(j)(1)). At 4 lb or a gallon and above it switches to the largest whole unit instead (101.7(k)).
5. Placement: in the bottom 30% of the principal display panel (the front of the package), parallel to the package base. Very small packages (≤5 in² PDP) are exempt from the bottom-30% placement.
6. Type size scales with the panel: minimum height of 1/16 in (PDP ≤5 in²), 1/8 in (>5–25 in²), 3/16 in (>25–100 in²), 1/4 in (>100–400 in²), and 1/2 in (>400 in²), measured by lowercase letter height. Verify against 101.7(i) for your exact package.
7. Work out the panel area the way 101.1 does. Every tier above depends on it, and it is not simply the size of your label. 21 CFR 101.1: a rectangular package uses the height times the width of the display side; a cylindrical container — a jar or a bottle — uses 40% of the height times the circumference; any other shape uses 40% of the total surface. Tops, bottoms, and the shoulders and necks of bottles and jars are excluded. A 3 in jar 5 in tall has a panel of about 18 in², not the 15 in² of a label wrapped round it — and a taller, wider jar can cross into the next tier entirely.

Good examples

• Cookies in a pouch: Net Wt 8 oz (227 g)
• Jam in a jar: Net Wt 10 oz (283 g)
• Hot sauce: Net 5 fl oz (148 mL)
• Loaf of bread over a pound: Net Wt 24 oz (1 lb 8 oz) 680 g. Under 4 lb the declaration is made in ounces, with the pound figure in parentheses (21 CFR 101.7(j)(1)) — not the other way round.

Common mistakes

• Metric missing entirely (the single most common error)
• Weighing product + packaging together
• Using fluid ounces for a thick product sold by weight (or vice versa)
• Burying the statement on the back panel