Everything You Need to Know About Physical Activity Labels and SFDA Compliance

If you're running a restaurant, café, juice shop, or food business in Saudi Arabia, there’s an important update you need to know. Starting July 1, 2025, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) will require all food outlets that serve meals outside the home to include physical activity labels next to the nutrition facts label on their menu items.

These labels will show how many minutes of walking it would take to burn off the calories in a dish. It’s part of a larger public health initiative to encourage smarter food choices, raise nutrition awareness, and help reduce obesity across the Kingdom.

What Is a Physical Activity Label?

A physical activity label is a front-of-menu or front-of-pack visual that converts calorie information into real-life physical activity—specifically walking time.

For example: "480 kcal – 55 min walking"

Instead of just showing calorie numbers, which many people ignore or don’t fully understand, it presents the information in a relatable, practical way. If a drink has 250 kcal, a label might show: "Requires 29 minutes of walking to burn off."

Why SFDA Is Making It Mandatory

Beginning July 1, 2025, all food businesses that serve food outside the home must display physical activity labels alongside calorie information. This includes:

Printed and digital menus

Drive-thru menus

Food delivery and ordering platforms

This move is part of SFDA’s broader national strategy to:

-Improve the clarity and visibility of nutrition facts labels

-Promote transparency in food labels

-Help people make healthier, more informed decisions

-Reduce rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases

The SFDA has recognized that calorie counts alone aren't always enough to encourage behavior change. Physical activity equivalents give consumers a clearer understanding of energy intake.

This isn’t the first time SFDA has implemented regulations focused on public health. The physical activity label is another step toward building a more health-conscious culture in Saudi Arabia.

What Are the Technical Requirements?

Here’s what the regulation says food businesses must do:

-Show the number of minutes of walking needed to burn off the calories per item

-Apply the same font size, color, and formatting as the item name or price

-Use Arabic or bilingual labeling based on your menu

-Optional but encouraged: include a walking icon or a QR code linking to full nutrition info

For example, an item with 300 kcal would be labeled like:

"300 kcal – 34 minutes walking"

Why You Should Start Preparing Now?

Although the regulation goes into effect in July 2025, starting early gives you time to:

-Adjust recipes to reduce calories if needed

-Prepare bilingual templates for printed and digital menus

-Train staff and update point-of-sale systems

-Stay ahead of SFDA inspections and avoid last-minute panic

How NutriCal Helps You Stay Compliant

Manually calculating calorie burn time and formatting labels for every item is tedious and prone to error. NutriCal simplifies the entire process from start to finish.

✅ Accurate Nutrition Facts Label

NutriCal analyzes your ingredients and recipes to calculate total calories and generate an SFDA-compliant nutrition facts label in Arabic and English.

✅ Instant Burn Time Calculation

Using SFDA’s approved MET formula, NutriCal automatically calculates how many minutes of walking it takes to burn the calories in each item. You don’t have to use spreadsheets or online converters.

✅ Bilingual Physical Activity Labels

NutriCal generates visual labels that include both calorie and walking time values. Labels can be exported for use on:

-Menu boards

-Tablets or kiosks

-Delivery app listings

-Packaging or front-of-pack visuals

✅ Visual Consistency

NutriCal helps ensure the label design matches SFDA display requirements—including font size, color, and formatting. You can even add icons or QR codes with just a click.

Example: Chicken Wrap Label

Let’s say you offer a grilled chicken wrap with 520 kcal.

NutriCal will:

-Instantly calculate the burn time: ~54 minutes walking

-Generate a label that reads:

"520 kcal | 54 min walking"

This label is ready to place directly on your printed or digital menu, delivery page, or grab-and-go packaging.

Who Should Use Physical Activity Labels?

If your business serves food to the public, this applies to you. That includes:

-Restaurants and cafés

-Juice bars and smoothie shops

-Meal plan and diet-focused brands

-Snack shops and fast-casual outlets

-Cloud kitchens and food trucks

-Food court and cinema concessions

Basically, if your food is being served for consumption outside the home, you’ll need to include physical activity information starting July 2025.

Whether you have five items or fifty, NutriCal helps you stay compliant.

Why It Matters for Your Brand

Adding physical activity labels isn't just about regulation—it's also a smart brand move. Here’s why:

-You show your customers that you care about health and transparency

-You differentiate yourself from competitors who haven’t adapted

-You prepare your business for future regulations and inspections

-You build trust and loyalty with health-conscious customers

Customers are becoming more mindful of what they eat. Many actively scan menus for nutrition cues. When they see the walking time, it gives them a clearer sense of how that food fits into their lifestyle.

In the age of wellness and accountability, clear nutrition and physical activity labeling is becoming a customer expectation.

Don’t Wait Until the Deadline

July 2025 might sound far away now, but updating your labels takes time. Creating visuals, updating menus, training staff, and getting everything approved can take weeks—even months.

NutriCal helps you:

-Stay compliant with SFDA’s latest food label rules

-Save time on manual calculations and design work

-Deliver accurate, professional labels across your brand

The earlier you begin, the easier it will be to test and refine your system.

Sample of a Perfect SFDA-Compliant Menu

To meet SFDA’s latest menu regulations, businesses must follow a detailed structure that goes beyond just calorie counts. A fully compliant menu includes: physical activity labels based only on walking time, caffeine content listed in milligrams per serving (e.g., “30 mg caffeine/250 ml”), and a sodium icon for any item containing more than 2000 mg of sodium or 5 grams of salt. Allergens must be clearly listed in a standardized format—such as “Contains: Gluten, Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Soy, Fish, Crustaceans, Molluscs, Celery, Mustard, Lupin, Sesame, Sulphites.” Arabic language is required across the entire menu.

In addition, SFDA mandates that eight health and nutrition statements be placed at the bottom of the menu. These cover daily calorie needs for adults and children, limits for salt and sugar, recommended caffeine intake, and the customer’s right to request no added sugar in beverages. With NutriCal, you can generate a fully SFDA-compliant menu that includes all these elements—formatted correctly, bilingual-ready, and inspection-proof.

Ready to Get Started?

NutriCal is the easiest way to create SFDA-compliant nutrition facts labels and physical activity visuals. Whether you’re preparing for July 2025 or looking to stand out with health-forward branding, we’re here to help.

⭐ Book a free demo and see how NutriCal makes food labeling fast, accurate, and stress-free.