Do firms leverage the FDA nutrient label rounding rules to generate favorable nutrition fact panels or health claims?

•FDA regulations allow calorie and nutrient level rounding.•Rounding rules affect nutrition fact panels and front of package claims.•Evidence suggests some firms systematically round up or down specific nutrients.•Firms may be more likely to round nutrients to obtain a front of package claim.•High nutrition rated products leverage rounding rules more than lower rated products. The increasing incidence of nutrition related health concerns has made food labeling an important policy issue. Previous work suggests the importance of communicating nutrition information to consumers through product packaging. This paper investigates the role of labeling guidelines, which allow the rounding of calorie and nutrient levels on nutrition fact panels and affects front of package claims. We examine ready-to-eat cereal products as a bundle of nutrient attributes, and estimate the likelihood and magnitude of the rounding of specific nutrients and calories. We find systematic rounding, both up and down, of several nutrients, which affects allowable health claims and may influence consumer product choice and health outcomes.