Guide to food labelling

Most foods provide two panels of information:

• Nutritional information
• Guideline daily amounts

An example of a nutrition information panel from a food label:

Guideline daily amounts are provided on many food labels (see below for an example). This gives a guide to the number of calories and amount of fat the ‘average’ adult should eat per day. You can then take the information from the nutritional panel and work out how much is in each serving in comparison to the amount recommended in your daily diet.

Always use the GDA to guide you to making wise food choices, and as an extra help the information is usually at the bottom of the nutrition information panel on food labels.

So, what does the nutrition information on the label really mean?
When you are looking to make healthy eating choices, the most important elements of food to concentrate on is the energy, fat and salt quantities detailed on the nutritional panel.Energy levels
This can be expressed as kJ (kilojoules) or as kcal (kilocalories). Strictly speaking, a kilocalorie is equivalent to 1,000 calories, but in everyday language the term ‘calorie’ is used for both measures.

Fat content
There are three main types of fats; saturates, polyunsaturates and monounsaturates.  Often on labels you will only see the total amount of fat and the amount of saturated fat in the product – it is the saturated fat that is the least healthy of the three.

Salt or sodium
On a food label, salt is often called sodium. But don’t be fooled by smaller quantities, 1g of sodium is roughly the same as 2.5g salt and it is the sodium that causes health problems.

So how much is a lot or a little?
For foods that you eat in large amounts, like ready meals, look at the ‘amount per serving’. For snacks, and other foods you eat in smaller amounts, look at the ‘per 100g’ information.

The table below gives you a rough guide to the quantities; any food that meets or exceeds the amounts in the ‘A lot’ column you should really leave on the shelf.

Health claims
Many foods make claims such as ‘low-fat’, ‘reduced sugar’ or ‘95% fat free’. It can be really hard sometimes working out whether these claims mean the food is ‘healthy’ for us.

To help you get to grips with all the health claim jargon here’s a quick guide:

Low-fat indicates that the food has less than 3g of fat per 100g of the food or product. Some foods that fit this category are yoghurts, many fruit and vegetables, bread, rice and pasta. It is always worth looking at the label and checking to see how much sugar is in a food claiming to be low fat. For example, some low-fat yogurts are really high in sugar.

Low sugar indicates that the food has no more than 5g of sugar per 100g or per 100ml of food.

No added sugar means that no additional sugar has been added to the food or drink. That does not mean that the food or drink is not high in natural sugar already for example: pure fruit juice.

Reduced fat means that the product must contain 25% less fat than a similar or the original product. So, importantly it does not mean that the product is ‘low-fat’. Think of margarine, butter or mayonnaise – all the standard versions are very high in fat, even a reduced fat version of these products would still be high in fat.

95% fat free sounds great, but it still means that there is 5% fat! Remember a 100g snack that makes the claim to be 95% fat free will have 5g of fat – well out of the low fat tolerance.

The best advice is to see food labels as they actually are – they may seem confusing a first but they do provide most of the information we need to make better food choices, but ultimately the calories that you get from fat and sugar are the ones to watch.

So, the next time you do your weekly shop don’t be fooled by food claims and always read the label – you will be well on your way to healthier and more nutritious diet.