The seven mandatory numbers
Under Standard 1.2.8 of the Food Standards Code, a nutrition information panel must declare average energy, and the average quantity of protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fat, and saturated fatty acids, plus sodium. That's the core seven. Everything else on a typical panel, fibre included, is there because the manufacturer chose to include it or because a specific claim triggers a requirement to show it.
Why fibre is sometimes missing
Dietary fibre only becomes a mandatory declaration when the manufacturer makes a claim requiring nutrition information about fibre, sugars, or another type of carbohydrate. When that happens, the panel must include a declaration of the presence or absence of dietary fibre. Outside of that trigger, showing a fibre figure is entirely optional. A product can be genuinely fibre-rich and still carry no fibre line on its panel, simply because nobody made a claim about it.
An empty fibre row doesn't mean a product has none. It usually means no claim was made about it, which is the only thing that makes declaring it compulsory.
Per serve and per 100g, side by side
Every mandatory figure must be shown both for a serving of the food and for what the Code calls the "unit quantity": 100g for solid or semi-solid food, 100mL for a beverage or other liquid. This is what lets you compare two products with different serving sizes on equal terms; the per-serve column reflects the pack's stated serving, while the per-100g or per-100mL column is fixed and comparable across any product in the same format.
The rounding and "less than" rules
Energy content and nutrient quantities on the panel are expressed to no more than 3 significant figures. For very small amounts, the Code allows shorthand: protein, fat, carbohydrate, sugars, and dietary fibre can each be shown as "LESS THAN 1g" if the true average is below that, energy as "LESS THAN 40kJ" if below that threshold, and sodium or potassium as "LESS THAN 5mg" if below that.
Percentage Daily Intake, if it's shown
Percentage Daily Intake (%DI) figures are optional, but when a manufacturer includes them, the Code sets the reference values they must be calculated against, based on an average adult diet of 8,700kJ. The reference value for dietary fibre, if declared, is 30g. That's a general population reference figure fixed for panel-calculation purposes, not a personal target and not the same as NHMRC's Adequate Intake or Suggested Dietary Target benchmarks, which are set separately, by sex.
Reading it in practice
Start with the per-100g or per-100mL column if you're comparing products, since it strips out serving-size differences. Check whether fibre is declared at all before assuming its absence means none is present. And treat any %DI figure as a rough population reference, not a personalised target, since your own AI or SDT for fibre depends on your sex and isn't what the panel is calculating against.
Sources
Related reading
- What do "source of fibre" and "excellent source" mean in Australia?
- Who falls short on fibre in Australia?