How to read food labels, part 1

Understanding the nutrition label on food packaging can be really confusing. There's lots of numbers and lots of claims so it can be hard to know what’s really going on with your food.

There’s a lot to cover when it comes to food labelling so this blog post will be a 2 parter, with the second part coming next week.

This post will cover the front of pack nutrition labelling, and some of the nutritional information on the back of the pack. While next week will cover nutrition claims like ‘high in fibre’ and how to understand the nutrition information table.

The traffic light system: 

The front of pack labelling on food packaging is usually shown in the traffic light format as a quick way to gauge how ‘healthy’ a product is.

The nutrients covered in the traffic light system are energy (calories), fat, saturated fats, sugars, and salt. These nutrients in particular are ones to be mindful of, as having these in excess can contribute to negative health effects. It’s normally presented as the nutrition per serving, but it can also be per 100g of the product.

• Red means the product is high in that nutrient and you should try to reduce how often you eat it.
• Amber means the product has a medium amount of the nutrient so you can have it most of the time within a balanced diet.
• Green makes the product is low in that nutrient and it’s a product to choose most often.

For example, a pack of crisps is likely to be red for fat and salt meaning it’s high in these. It’s also likely to be amber for saturated fats, so you should be more mindful of how often you eat them.

Aiming to eat foods that are mostly green or a mix of green and amber can be a quick way to improve the health of your diet.

Below is a table with the figures for what counts as low, medium, and high for each nutrient:

Back of the pack labelling: 

The back of the food packaging has a more in depth nutrition labelling. It will have a description of the product, the ingredients list, the nutrition information table, the weight of the product and some other non-nutritional information like where the product was made/produced.

Ingredients list: 

There’s lots of tips to help you understand an ingredients list, so I’ll dive right in.

How are ingredients listed?

The first thing to consider is that ingredients must be listed in order of weight, in descending order. So, whatever is used the most will be first. 

If you’re buying a loaf of brown bread for example, you can expect the first ingredient to be wholemeal flour. This tells you what the product is mostly made up of. It can also be another way to assess how healthy a product is. If the first ingredient is sugar for example, then the product will be high in sugar and something to eat in moderation.

Also, when a product has an ingredient in the name of the product, for example ‘chicken Caesar wrap’, it must display the percentage of that ingredient in the ingredients list. So, the wrap ingredients will say ‘chicken breast (20%)’ in this instance. This tells you how much of the ingredient you're really getting.

Allergens on a food label must be clearly stated. They can be in bold, italics, underlined, or in a different font so people can clearly differentiate what’s an allergen. The 14 common allergens will always be declared. These are cereals containing gluten, soy, lupin, sulfur dioxide, fish, eggs, crustaceans, molluscs, milk, sesame, peanut, tree nuts, celery, and mustard.

The length of the ingredients list can sometimes give you an idea of how processed a food product is. Typically, the longer the ingredients list, the more processed the food is. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and food processing isn’t something to be afraid of, but it can be helpful when making informed choices.

What are the different names of ingredients?

Another thing to consider is that some ingredients will have different names depending on the food brand so it can be tricky to know what they really are.

Sugar: Sugar is one example that has many other names. It’s helpful to be aware of the different names for sugar as excess sugar can damage our dental health and blood sugar control. 

Sugar has other names such as honey, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, dextrose, glucose, glucose syrup, fructose, caramel, cane juice, fruit juice concentrate, corn syrup, date syrup, golden syrup, invert sugar, molasses, raw sugar, maple syrup, and the list goes on!

E numbers: E numbers are codes for products used as food additives. Food additives are used to improve the taste, texture, shelf life, appearance, or colour of foods. The E stands for Europe as it’s a standardised list across the EU. There’s often controversy around the use of food additives but they're added in small amounts and can improve the quality of our food.

The number will determine the type of additive it is but of course there will be some exceptions to the rule.

• E100 – 199 are food colours. For example, paprika is E160c and is used for its red colour.
• E200 – 299 are preservatives. For example, E220 is sulfur dioxide and is used to preserve dried fruits.
• E300 – 399 are antioxidants. For example, E300 is vitamin C and it’s used for to stop things like jam from spoiling.
• E400 – 499 are thickeners, emulsifiers and stabilises. For example, E406 is agar which is used to set jellies and custards.
• E500 – 599 are acidity regulators and anti-caking agents. For example, E500 is sodium carbonate and can be found in instant noodles to improve the dough used for the noodles.
• E600 – 699 are flavour enhancers. For example, E621 is MSG (monosodium glutamate) and is a savoury flavour enhancer.   
• E700 – 999 are sweeteners, foaming agents and gases. For example, E954 is saccharin which is used as a sweetener in many products.

Vitamins: vitamins in food products can also be confusing as they may be referred to with their chemical name, which makes them sound scarier than they are. Here’s a quick list of names you may see in your food products:

• Thiamine – vitamin B1 (must be added to white flour by law)
• Riboflavin – vitamin B2
• Niacin – vitamin B3 (must be added to white flour by law)
• Pantothenic acid – vitamin B5
• Pyridoxine – vitamin B6
• Biotin – vitamin B7
• Folic acid – vitamin B9
• Beta carotene – vitamin A, also listed as its E number E160a
• Ascorbic acid – vitamin C, also listed as its E number E300.
• Cholecalciferol – vitamin D
• Tocopherol – vitamin E also called by its E numbers E306, E307, E308, or E308

As you can see, there’s a lot to know about ingredients lists on food packaging! I hope this has given you an insight into different ingredients and shown that some aren’t as scary as they're made to be.

Next week I’ll be going into the nutritional information table and food claims so you know what they really mean.

Key points:

• The traffic light system is a quick way to gauge how healthy a product is. Aim for more green and amber colours when buying food.
• The ingredients list will be listed in order of weight and will make allergens clear.
• E numbers and vitamins are often listed in ingredients lists with scary sounding names, but they all have a function to improve the product.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

Bye for now! 👋

References:

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/rowett/documents/Traffic_light_guide.pdf

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/how-to-read-food-labels/

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/check-the-label

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-labelling-giving-food-information-to-consumers#give-a-quantitative-ingredients-declaration-quid

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/approved-additives-and-e-numbers