The Searchable CN Label Database

How to read a CN label

A CN label is a standardized crediting statement a manufacturer may print on the product itself. It is voluntary. To carry one, the product has to be produced under federal inspection by the USDA or the USDC under the CN Labeling Memorandum of Understanding, and its contribution toward the meal pattern has to be worked out using yields from the USDA Food Buying Guide.

Four things have to appear on it:

1. The product name.
2. An ingredient statement.
3. The CN logo box — a rectangular box with “CN” printed on all four sides. Inside it sits the meal pattern contribution statement, which is the part that tells you what one serving credits toward.
4. An inspection legend, either as wording or as an icon.

Most CN labeled products are entrees that contribute to the meat or meat alternate component. Some are combination dishes: a pizza can credit toward both meat/meat alternate and grains.

Why a label expires, and why its number changes

CN labels expire every five years. When one is renewed it is also renumbered, so a product your center has bought for years can arrive with a different CN number on the case. Some products carry more than one label.

So if a search here comes up empty on a CN label number, try the manufacturer’s product number instead, or the manufacturer name, or just the food itself. The search covers all of them.

What this database is, and what it is not

It is a reference we build and give away, and you do not need a CenterPilot account to use it. The count and the date it was last refreshed are shown above the table.

Not every entry carries a printed expiry date. Where we have one it is shown, and entries past their date are marked Expired rather than deleted — tick Hide expired labels to take them out of the list. An entry with a dash in the Expires column means we do not hold a date for it, not that it runs forever.

It does not replace the case label. To pass a sponsor or state review, USDA requires the actual CN label from the food case to be kept on site. Treat this as the place to check crediting and find a label quickly, not as the documentation itself.

If a product is not here

Ask us to add it. Send photographs of the label, the front of the package, the ingredient list and the Nutrition Facts panel, and it goes into the database for every center, not just yours.

A product with no CN label at all can still be creditable. Manufacturers can supply a product analysis or Product Formulation Statement that works the creditable amounts out of the Food Buying Guide and carries a signed certification of how much meat or grain a serving provides. The CN Label Documentation Clarification covers how to evaluate both.

Want the longer version? The CN labels webinar walks through a real label end to end, including how the crediting turns into quantities on a meal production record.

Landed here while comparing software? How to choose CACFP software is our buyer’s guide, and it names no vendors.