How to Read the Percent Daily Value on Food Labels

This article is informational only and is not medical advice. It explains how to read a US Nutrition Facts label, not what you personally should eat.

The percent Daily Value, printed as %DV on every US Nutrition Facts label, is meant to answer a simple question: does this one serving contribute a little or a lot toward your nutrient needs for the entire day? According to the FDA, the Daily Value itself is the recommended amount of a nutrient to consume or not exceed each day, and the %DV shows how much a single serving contributes toward that number.

The basic rule: 5 percent and 20 percent

The FDA gives a simple general guide for interpreting any %DV number on a label:

• 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low.
• 20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high.

This means you don't need to memorize every nutrient's exact Daily Value to use the label effectively. If you see a %DV under 5, you know that nutrient is a minor part of that product. If you see a %DV over 20, you know it's a significant contributor, worth paying attention to, especially for nutrients you're trying to limit.

The FDA's actual reference numbers

Behind every %DV calculation is a specific Daily Value number set by the FDA, based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. Some of the most commonly checked ones:

As a worked example using the FDA's own method: if a nutrient's Daily Value is 300 micrograms and a product contains 30 micrograms per serving, the %DV would be 30 divided by 300, which equals 10 percent. Eating one serving would meet 10 percent of your daily need for that nutrient, leaving the other 90 percent to come from the rest of your day's food.

Nutrients to get more of versus less of

The FDA separates nutrients into two practical categories based on typical American eating patterns.

Nutrients to get less of: saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. The FDA notes that eating too much saturated fat and sodium is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, and too much added sugar can crowd out other nutrients while staying within calorie limits.

Nutrients to get more of: dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. These are nutrients the FDA notes most Americans don't get enough of, and getting more of them is linked to benefits like reduced risk of osteoporosis, anemia, and high blood pressure.

The practical rule that follows: for the "less of" group, you generally want a lower %DV. For the "more of" group, you generally want a higher %DV.

A worked sodium example

The FDA's own nutrition label guidance walks through an example using sodium. If a sample label shows 37% DV for sodium in one serving, that already crosses the 20% threshold the FDA defines as "high." If you ate two servings of that same product, you would have consumed 74% of your entire day's sodium Daily Value, which is close to three-quarters of the full day's allowance from a single food item.

This example shows why serving size and %DV need to be read together. A product might look moderate at its listed serving size but become a major contributor to your day's sodium, saturated fat, or sugar intake if you realistically eat more than one serving in a sitting.

Trans fat, total sugars, and protein don't get a %DV

Not every number on the label comes with a %DV. According to the FDA, protein generally has no %DV listed, so you compare products using the gram amount directly instead. Trans fat and total sugars also have no %DV, for the same reason: no established Daily Value exists for these items on current labels, so gram comparisons are the only way to judge them.

Using %DV to compare two products quickly

Because the %DV scale is standardized across all packaged foods using the same 2,000-calorie reference, you can use it to compare two different products' contribution to your day, even if their serving sizes differ in grams or milliliters. If one cereal lists 15% DV for added sugars and another lists 35% DV for the same nutrient, the second product contributes more than double the first toward your day's added sugar limit, regardless of how the gram amounts compare on their own.

Key takeaways

• 5% DV or less counts as low, and 20% DV or more counts as high, for any nutrient on the label.
• The FDA's Daily Values are based on a 2,000-calorie diet, with sodium at 2,300mg, added sugars at 50g, and saturated fat at 20g among the most commonly checked.
• Aim for lower %DV on saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars, and higher %DV on dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
• Protein, trans fat, and total sugars do not have an assigned %DV, so compare these by gram amount instead.
• %DV lets you compare different products on the same scale, even when their serving sizes differ.