You are standing in a shop, reading the back of a packet, and there it is. A small cross, printed beside a number on the nutrition table or tucked near the bottom of the panel. It isn’t explained, and it looks official enough to matter.
Let’s start with the honest point: there is no single meaning for a cross on a nutrition label, and anyone who gives you one flat answer is guessing.
In most cases, the cross is a footnote marker, a tiny signpost pointing you to a line of small print. On other products, a cross-shaped logo means something quite different, such as a gluten-free certification. This guide walks through the real possibilities, United States labels first, and shows you how to work out which one is on your packet.
The Most Common Case: A Footnote Marker in the Table
On a United States Nutrition Facts label, the most likely explanation is the simplest one. The mark you are calling a cross is a reference symbol, and its only job is to send your eyes to the footnote at the bottom of the panel.
The United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, sets the rules for this label. On its guide to the label, the FDA explains that the bottom section holds a footnote about the Percent Daily Value. The familiar sentence reads that the percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. On many labels that sentence is flagged with a small star, and on others the marker looks more like a little cross or plus sign, depending on the font the printer used.
The FDA’s own walkthrough of how to understand and use the Nutrition Facts label shows how the marker and the footnote work together.
The point to hold on to is this. The symbol carries no warning and no score. It is punctuation. It means, in effect, see the note below.
Larger packages often print the full footnote, a small table of Daily Values for a 2,000 and a 2,500 calorie diet. Small packages may print only the one required sentence about the 2,000 calorie diet, because there is no room for more. Either way, the meaning of the marker is the same.
What the Footnote Is Really Telling You
Since the marker points to the Percent Daily Value note, it’s worth knowing how to use that note once you find it. The percentage next to each nutrient indicates how much of a full day’s amount is in one serving of food. It lets you compare two products quickly without doing any math with grams and milligrams.
The FDA gives shoppers a simple rule of thumb. A nutrient at 5 percent Daily Value or less per serving counts as low, and 20 percent or more counts as high. So if the footnote sentence is the one your cross points to, the label is quietly inviting you to judge the whole table against a standard 2,000 calorie day.
Keep one caution in mind. That 2,000 calorie figure is a general reference for label math, not a personal target. Your own needs may be higher or lower, and the percentages still work as a comparison tool either way. That is all the marker is doing when it sends you to the bottom of the panel.
On Vitamin Bottles: The Dagger Means Daily Value Not Established
Supplements are where the cross shape appears most clearly, because there it is usually a true dagger. A dagger is a small cross shaped mark, printed as †, and sometimes as a double dagger, ‡.
On a Supplement Facts panel, a dagger beside an ingredient means that no Daily Value has been established for that ingredient. Follow the mark to the bottom of the panel and you will find the matching footnote, which reads “Daily Value not established.” This is a legal format set by FDA rules for supplement labels.
You will see it next to things like herbal extracts, CoQ10 and many specialty ingredients, because regulators have never set an official daily amount for them. It does not mean the ingredient is unsafe, and it does not mean the amount is secret. The amount per serving is still printed in the panel. It simply means there is no government reference number to turn that amount into a percentage, so no percent can be shown.
A Crossed Ear of Wheat: The Gluten Free Symbol
Now look at the front of the packet. If the cross you spotted is a picture of an ear of wheat or grain with a line or cross through it, usually inside a circle, that is a different symbol altogether.
This is the Crossed Grain symbol, a registered certification mark used widely in the United Kingdom and across Europe, and coordinated by coeliac societies. It tells shoppers that the product is certified gluten free. In the United Kingdom and the European Union, food can only be sold as gluten free when it contains 20 parts per million of gluten or less, and products carrying the symbol are licensed and checked against that standard.
So a crossed wheat ear is good news for someone with coeliac disease, not a warning. It is also voluntary. A product can be legally gluten free and say so in words without carrying the symbol, because the words and the symbol rest on the same legal limit.
What About Allergens and “May Contain”?
Many shoppers assume a cross must be an allergy warning. On United States labels, it is not, because allergen information is given in words, not symbols. Federal law requires the major allergens to be named in plain language, either in the ingredients list or in a separate “Contains” statement right after it, such as “Contains: Milk, Wheat.” A separate line may add that the product was made in a facility that also handles peanuts or tree nuts.
European labels work in words too. Allergens are picked out in bold type inside the ingredients list, and a “may contain” sentence is used when there is a real risk of cross contact during production. No standard cross symbol does that job.
The practical lesson is simple. If a cross or any other mark sits near allergen wording, the wording is what counts. Read the sentence, not the symbol. A small logo printed beside it might be a brand’s own decoration or a certification mark for something else entirely, and it has no standard meaning of its own.
How to Tell Which Cross You Are Looking At
You can settle the question in under a minute with three checks.
First, follow the mark. If the same tiny symbol appears again at the bottom of the nutrition panel, it is a footnote marker. Read the sentence next to it. That sentence is the whole meaning of the symbol, whether it is about the 2,000 calorie diet or a Daily Value that was never established.
Second, look at the shape. A tiny plain cross, star or dagger inside the nutrition table is punctuation. A detailed picture, such as a wheat ear inside a circle, is a certification logo, and it will usually sit on the front of the pack with words nearby that name what it certifies.
Third, consider where the product comes from. United States labels follow FDA formats, so a cross there is nearly always a footnote marker or a supplement dagger. Imported European products are the ones most likely to carry the Crossed Grain gluten free symbol or other national certification marks.
One last look alike is worth knowing. A plain green cross on a shop sign or a box usually marks a pharmacy or a medical product in many countries. It is a business symbol, not nutrition information, and it tells you nothing about the food inside.
The cross on your label, then, is almost never bad news. Work out which kind it is, read the small print it points to, and the mystery is solved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a cross on a nutrition label mean the food is unhealthy?
No. In the most common case the mark is only a footnote symbol, pointing to the note that percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. It is not a health rating, a warning or a grade of any kind.
What does the dagger symbol mean on a supplement label?
It means Daily Value not established. The FDA has never set an official daily reference amount for that ingredient, so the label cannot show a percentage for it. The matching footnote at the bottom of the Supplement Facts panel says so in words.
What does a crossed wheat symbol on a packet mean?
It is the Crossed Grain symbol, a certification mark used in the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. It shows the product is certified gluten free, at 20 parts per million of gluten or less, which is the legal standard for gluten free food there.
How do I find the footnote a label symbol refers to?
Look at the very bottom of the nutrition panel, below the main table. Footnotes are printed there in small type, each one starting with the same symbol used in the table, such as a star or a dagger. Match the symbols and read that line.
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