FDA Serving Size Guidelines

FDA serving size regulations help consumers compare and contrast the value of the food they are purchasing and ensure they are getting the nutrition they and their families need.

Significance

• The FDA has set up serving size regulations to define a uniform reference amount for food products with similar characteristics and usage. This allows consumers to compare the calorie and nutrition information in similar products and make better and healthier choices about the foods they buy.

Identification

• The FDA bases serving size on the reference amount customarily consumed per eating occasion (RACC). The FDA finds RACC by conducting national food consumption surveys and taking the mean, median and mode of the amounts consumed to calculate a serving size. RACC can also be found by taking the serving sizes set forth by other guiding bodies, such as manufacturers, grocers or other countries.

Function

• The FDA publishes tables of foods and their serving sizes, which can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations. RACC has been determined for 139 food categories. For example, federal regulations define the reference amount of bread as 50g, that of cookies 30g and that of heavy cake as 125g. Food producers determine how their product will be divided -- such as slices of bread or cake, what size each division is and use the table to determine how much of their product will equal a serving size -- such as two 25g slices of bread equaling one serving.