Title 9

SECTION 381.118

381.118 Ingredients statement.

§ 381.118 Ingredients statement.

(a)(1) The label shall show a statement of the ingredients in the poultry product if the product is fabricated from two or more ingredients. Such ingredients shall be listed by their common or usual names in the order of their descending proportions, except as prescribed in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.

(2)(i) Product ingredients which are present in individual amounts of 2 percent or less by weight may be listed in the ingredients statement in other than descending order of predominance: Provided, That such ingredients are listed by their common or usual names at the end of the ingredients statement and preceded by a quantifying statement, such as “Contains _____ percent or less of _____ ,” or “Less than _____ percent of _____ .” The percentage of the ingredient(s) shall be filled in with a threshold level of 2 percent, 1.5 percent, 1.0 percent, or 0.5 percent, as appropriate. No ingredient to which the quantifying statement applies may be present in an amount greater than the stated threshold. Such a quantifying statement may also be utilized when an ingredients statement contains a listing of ingredients by individual components. Each component listing may utilize the required quantifying statement at the end of each component ingredients listing.

(ii) Such ingredients may be adjusted in the product formulation without a change being made in the ingredients statement on the labeling, provided that the adjusted amount complies with subpart P of this part and § 424.21(c) of subchapter E, and does not exceed the amount shown in the quantifying statement. Any such adjustments to the formulation shall be provided to the inspector-in-charge.

(b) For the purpose of this paragraph, the term “chicken meat,” unless modified by an appropriate adjective, is construed to mean deboned white and dark meat; whereas the term “chicken” may include other edible parts such as skin and fat not in excess of their natural proportions, in addition to the chicken meat. If the term “chicken meat” is listed and the product also contains skin, giblets, or fat, it is necessary to list each such ingredient. Similar principles shall be followed in listing ingredients of poultry products processed from other kinds of poultry.

(1) The term “spice” means any aromatic vegetable substance in the whole, broken, or ground form, with the exceptions of onions, garlic and celery, whose primary function in food is seasoning rather than nutritional and from which no portion of any volatile oil or other flavoring principle has been removed. Spices include the spices listed in 21 CFR 182.10, and 184.

(2) The term “natural flavor,” “natural flavoring,” “flavor” or “flavoring” means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or any other edible portions of a plant, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose primary function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in 21 CFR 182.10, 182.20, 182.40, 182.50 and 184, and the substances listed in 21 CFR 172.510. The term natural flavor, natural flavoring, flavor or flavoring may also be used to designate spices, powdered onion, powdered garlic, and powdered celery.

(i) Natural flavor, natural flavoring, flavor or flavoring as described in paragraph (c)(1) and (2) of this section, which are also colors shall be designated as “natural flavor and coloring,” “natural flavoring and coloring,” “flavor and coloring” or “flavoring and coloring” unless designated by their common or usual name.

(ii) Any ingredient not designated in paragraphs (c) (1) and (2) of this section whose function is flavoring, either in whole or in part, must be designated by its common or usual name. Those ingredients which are of livestock or poultry origin must be designated by names that include the species and livestock and poultry tissues from which the ingredients are derived.

(d) On containers of frozen dinners, entrees, and pizzas, and similarly packaged products in cartons, the ingredient statement may be placed on the front riser panel: Provided, That the words “see ingredients,” followed immediately by an arrow pointing to the front riser panel, are placed on the principal display panel immediately above the location of such statement, without intervening printing or designs.

(e) The ingredients statement may be placed on the information panel, except as otherwise permitted in this subchapter.

(f) Establishments may interchange the identity of two kinds of poultry (e.g., chicken and turkey, chicken meat and turkey meat) used in a product formulation without changing the product's ingredient statement or product name under the following conditions:

(1)(i) The two kinds of poultry used must comprise at least 70 percent by weight of the poultry and the poultry ingredients [e.g. giblets, skin or fat in excess of natural proportions, or mechanically separated (kind)] used; and,

(ii) Neither of the two kinds of poultry used can be less than 30 percent by weight of the total poultry and poultry ingredients used;

(2) The word “and” in lieu of a comma must be shown between the declaration of the two kinds of poultry in the ingredients statement and in the product name.

[37 FR 9706, May 16, 1972, as amended at 55 FR 7294, Mar. 1, 1990; 55 FR 26422, June 28, 1990; 58 FR 38049, July 15, 1993; 59 FR 40215, Aug. 8, 1994; 63 FR 11360, Mar. 9, 1998; 76 FR 82078, Dec. 30, 2011]