Nutrition Information Panel(NIP)

What is a Nutrition Information Panel?

A Nutrition Information Panel (NIP) is the mandatory nutrition table required on most packaged foods sold in Australia and New Zealand. Under FSANZ Standard 1.2.8 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, a NIP must appear on the label of any packaged food unless the food qualifies for a specific exemption.

The NIP must declare the average quantities of eight core nutrients — energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, sodium, and dietary fibre (when a fibre claim is made) — expressed per serve and per 100 grams or 100 millilitres.

NIP Requirements in Practice

When a NIP is mandatory

A NIP is required on virtually all packaged food sold at retail in Australia and New Zealand. Exemptions are narrow: unpackaged foods, packages where the total available labelling surface area is less than 100 cm², and certain single-ingredient foods with no added nutrients. Critically, if your product carries any nutrition or health claim — "low fat", "high fibre", "source of protein" — a NIP is mandatory regardless of pack size or format.

What the NIP must show

Standard 1.2.8 prescribes the mandatory column structure and row order:

Nutrient	Per Serving	Per 100g or 100mL
Energy	kJ	kJ
Protein	g	g
Fat, total	g	g
— Saturated fat	g	g
Carbohydrate, total	g	g
— Sugars	g	g
Sodium	mg	mg

Dietary fibre must be added as a mandatory row whenever a dietary fibre claim is made. Vitamins and minerals may be added voluntarily or are required when a related claim is made.

Average quantity: what it means

The NIP must declare average quantities — not minimum, maximum, or target values. Average quantity is defined in Standard 1.1.1 as the average value based on actual data about the food. For most manufacturers, this means calculating nutrient content from the ingredient composition of the recipe using the FSANZ food composition database (AUSNUT), or from laboratory analysis of the finished product.

Common mistakes

Wrong serving size. The serving size must reflect a reasonable single-occasion amount for that specific food type. FSANZ publishes guidance on typical serving sizes by food category. A stated serving size that is implausibly small (to reduce declared energy per serve) is a common compliance risk.

Forgetting to update the NIP after reformulation. If you change an ingredient, adjust a ratio, or swap a supplier, the NIP must be recalculated. Many manufacturers update the recipe but not the label — creating a label that no longer matches the product.

Incorrect rounding. Schedule 12 of Standard 1.2.8 prescribes specific rounding rules for every nutrient. Energy rounds to the nearest 10 kJ; sodium rounds to the nearest 5 mg below 100 mg and the nearest 10 mg above; sugars round to one decimal place. Getting rounding wrong is one of the most common findings in label audits.

Missing the per-100g column. Some international label formats omit this column. In Australia, the per-100g column is mandatory alongside the per-serve column.

How Batchbase Handles Nutrition Information Panels

Batchbase auto-generates a fully formatted, compliant NIP directly from your recipe. When you add ingredients, Batchbase pulls nutrient data from the built-in FSANZ food composition database — over 1,588 pre-loaded Australian food ingredients — and calculates average quantities per 100g and per serve in real time.

When you change an ingredient or adjust a ratio, the NIP recalculates instantly. There is no spreadsheet to update, no manual database lookup, and no risk of the NIP lagging behind the recipe. The finished panel exports as a print-ready PDF in the correct FSANZ column format, ready to send to your label designer or printer.

Batchbase also applies Schedule 12 rounding rules automatically, ensuring the values on the NIP always comply with what the standard requires.

Related Standards and References

• FSANZ Standard 1.2.8 — Nutrition information requirements
• FSANZ Standard 1.1.1 — Definitions including "average quantity"
• Schedule 12, Standard 1.2.8 — Nutrient rounding rules
• FSANZ food standards code