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Updated October 2026

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What this covers Four of them are colorants The first shorthand with a limit The second The third, and the sharpest And wheat is on the list of nine None of this is about the jar References

If you jar sprinkles, cocoa, specialty flour or food coloring, the shorthand on your ingredient list has limits.

What this covers

Food coloring, cake decor, sprinkles, edible glitter, specialty flour and sugar, cocoa, baking powder and yeast. Nine leaves, grouped because they are dry and jarred, answering to the same body of food labeling law.

Four of them are colorants

Which changes the shape of the problem. A color additive is lawful for a use because it is listed for that use in parts 73, 74 or 82, and 21 CFR 101.22(k) decides how it must then be declared. That is the section this property leads with.

The first shorthand with a limit

"Artificial Color" is permitted only for colors not subject to certification and not otherwise required to be named. A certified color has to be declared by its listed name, with "Lake" included where it is a lake, as in Blue 1 Lake.

The second

A chemical preservative is declared by its common or usual name and by a separate description of its function. The rule gives the forms: preservative, to retard spoilage, a mold inhibitor, to help protect flavor, to promote color retention. The name alone is not enough.

The third, and the sharpest

A flavoring, coloring or incidental additive that contains a major food allergen is subject to allergen labeling notwithstanding any other law. So "natural flavors" and "artificial color" do not shield what is inside them.

And wheat is on the list of nine

Milk, egg, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame. In a baking category wheat reaches almost everything, and sesame was the most recent addition.

None of this is about the jar

Which is worth saying plainly. The container section here is measured and useful, and the reason this property exists is that the hard decisions are composition decisions made before anything is filled.

References

21 CFR 101.22(k), on declaring coloring in the statement of ingredients. Paragraph (k)(1) requires a color additive subject to certification to be declared by the name listed in part 74 or part 82, with "Lake" included where it is a lake; (k)(2) allows "Artificial Color", "Artificial Color Added" or "Color Added" only for colors not subject to certification and not otherwise required to be named. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 101.22(j), which requires a food containing an added chemical preservative to declare both the common or usual name of the ingredient and a separate description of its function, giving "preservative", "to retard spoilage", "a mold inhibitor", "to help protect flavor" and "to promote color retention" as examples. law.cornell.edu

21 U.S.C. 343(w), the major food allergen labeling requirements. Paragraph (1) gives the two permitted forms, a "Contains" statement immediately after or adjacent to the ingredient list in type no smaller than that list, or the food source in parentheses after the ingredient name. Paragraph (4) applies the requirement to a flavoring, coloring or incidental additive notwithstanding any other law. law.cornell.edu

21 U.S.C. 321(qq), which defines major food allergen as milk, egg, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame, plus any food ingredient containing protein derived from one of them, excepting highly refined oils and ingredients exempt under 343(w). law.cornell.edu

Written from federal statute and regulation, not from a kitchen. Food labeling has more parts than three sections, and a state cottage food program may add or subtract requirements for a local sale. Nothing here is clearance for a specific label, and whether an ingredient is cleared for food use is a question about that ingredient.