And of course, if you need more or less than 2,000 calories a day, you'll have to adjust accordingly, but this can be a helpful reference point. FDA says it uses Daily Values in order to prevent misinterpretations that could happen with quantitative values. But in fact, that amount represents less than 6 percent of the Daily Value for sodium, which is 2,400 mg. It takes some getting used to, but eventually reading food labels can become a habit. In addition to labels, reading the list of ingredients can also be useful, especially if someone is allergic or sensitive to individual additives or products such as milk, diary products, nuts, or certain chemicals.
Product claims Beyond the basic label information, many products make additional nutritional claims.
This term means that one serving of a food contains 10 to 19 percent of the Daily Value for a particular nutrient. This term means that a nutritionally altered product contains at least 25 percent less of a nutrient or of calories than the regular, or reference, product. Exceptions to the rules One place where you won't find information on fat content is on the labels of foods for children younger than age four. FDA says the reason is to prevent parents from wrongly assuming that infants and toddlers should restrict their fat intake, when, in fact, they should not. According to FDA, fat is important during these years to ensure adequate growth and development.