Reading food labels is valuable as it allows you to make the best food choices. Food labels allow you to compare the nutrient composition and volumes of different food components. The task of reading food labels on products can be time consuming and confusing, so here is some information to make it easier. The things to look for on a food product label include nutritional claims, the nutrition panel and the ingredients list.
Nutritional Claims
Many nutritional claims (such as “96% fat free”) are made on food packages and some are misleading to the consumer, so check carefully. If you are able to understand the terms, it allows you to check that the product is what you assume it to be. The claims must meet nutritional guidelines in order for them to be used. The following lists common nutritional claims on food products and their meaning:
Lite or light
This does not necessarily refer to the fat content of the food. It can refer to colour, taste, or texture. The exact fat content should be checked on the nutritional panel.
Reduced fat/salt
The fat or salt content must be at least 25% less than the original product. The product may still however have a high fat/salt content.
90% fat free
The product contains 10% fat. This can be a good or a bad choice depending on the food product. For example, a cheese that is 90% fat free is good (normally only 70-75% fat free). However, if milk claims to be 90% fat free, it wouldn't be a good choice as full cream milk is normally 96% fat free.
Low fat/fat free
To advertise ‘low fat’ the product must contain less than 3% fat, and for ‘fat free’ there must be less than 0.15% fat.
No added sugar
Products have no added sugar, but may be high in energy due to natural sugars or a high fat content.
All natural
The product has no colourings, flavourings, or preservatives added, but the claim does not relate to the fat, sugar, or energy content.
Cholesterol free/low cholesterol
Refers to the cholesterol content, not the fat content. Often seen on foods produced from plants such potato chips, however this is a meaningless claim as all plant foods contain no cholesterol. Remember that saturated fat contributes more to high cholesterol than dietary cholesterol.
Baked not fried
Words make products sound healthy, but in fact the product can have just as much fat. Checking the nutrition panel is vital.
Nutritional Information Panel
The nutritional information panel shows the amount of certain nutrients, ‘per 100g or 100 mL’ and per serving size. Every panel must include levels of energy (kilojoules or calories), protein, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars, sodium and any nutrient referred to in the nutrition claim. An example of a nutrition panel is the one below from a “lite”, 99.7% fat free strawberry yoghurt.
Analysis of nutrition panel with strawberry yoghurt
Energy
It is important to first look at the total energy and the amount of fat in the food. If the energy is high whilst the fat content is low, you can assume the majority of the energy would be coming from carbohydrate (sugar).
The nutrition panel shows one column as the serve size of 100g. Take note, the total yoghurt tub is advertised as two serves, so if you are consuming the whole tub you must double the nutritional content. This means that you would really be consuming 768kJ, not 384kJ.
Carbohydrate
Foods with less than 15g of sugar per 100g are a good choice.
The total amount of carbohydrates and the percentage of it that comes from sugar is another thing to look for. In this yoghurt, all the carbohydrate is from simple sugars and we know from the ingredient list this is mainly in the form of sucrose.
Fat
Foods with less than 10g fat per 100g are a good choice.
The types of fat listed are also important. The bad fats are saturated fats and trans-fatty fats. The good fats are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated.
Salt
A low salt food will have less than 120mg per 100g.
The daily recommended amount of salt intake should be 920-2300 mg/day.
Ingredients List
Ingredients must be listed from greatest to smallest by ingoing weight including water. When there are small amounts of a multi-component ingredient (under 5%), it is permitted to list the ‘composite’ ingredient only, for example the chocolate (rather than cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar) in a choc chip cookie. Food labels will show the percentage of the key ingredients if they are present.
Example with strawberry yoghurt:
Ingredients: yoghurt [skim milk, milk solids (non fat), sugar, vegetable gums, gelatine, live yoghurt culture], fruit preparation [strawberries (9%), sugar, flavour, vegetable gums, preservatives, food acids, water added]
This is a deceiving list of ingredients as it only shows the list of the two main ingredients and then the ingredients within these. It does not truly reflect relative quantities of the ingredients and therefore the amount of sugar in the food is disguised. If the list of ingredients was put in order of quantity, sugar would probably be near the top and more obvious.
Other things to look for in the ingredient list are the disguised names for fat sugar and salt:
References
www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au, www.foodstandards.gov.au
Disclaimer
This Fact Sheet is provided for your information only and does not replace qualified medical advice. The information provided may not apply to every person or all situations. A medical practitioner should be consulted for all treatment and medication.
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