Reading food labels

By law, all packaged food products must display an ingredient list. Small packages and foods like herbs and spices, tea, coffee and foods sold unpackaged or foods made and packaged at the point of sale are exceptions. Food labels can help you become more informed about your food choices and help you to make healthier food choices.

Nutrition information panel

The nutrition information panel (NIP) tells you the amount of energy (kilojoules), protein, total fat and saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars and sodium in the food product. If there is a nutrition claim on the label e.g. source of fibre, then that nutrient must also be included in the NIP

Nutrition information panel – example

Servings per package: 1 Serving size: 50g
	Per 50g serve	Per 100g
Energy	501kJ	1002kJ
Protein	3.5g	7.0g
Total Fat	0.4g	0.8g
Saturated fat	0.3g	0.7g
Carbohydrates total	25.3g	50.6g
Carbohydrates sugars	7.5g	15.0g
Dietary Fibre	3.4g	6.8g
Cholesterol	nil	nil
Sodium	195mg	390mg

Serving size

This is the average serving size of the product as decided by the manufacturer. However, this may not be the same as the serving you will eat.

Per 100g

The 100g column tells you the amount of nutrients in 100g of the food. This can be useful for comparing food products and determining the percentage of that nutrient in the food. For example, this food has 7g Protein per 100g = 7 per cent.

Energy

This is measured in kilojoules (kJ) or calories (cal). The amount of energy each of us needs depends on many factors such as age, weight and activity levels, and will vary from person to person. Foods that are high in fat and sugar tend to be high in kilojoules. Eating more kilojoules than what your body needs will lead to weight gain.

Fat and saturated fat

Use the figure per 100g to compare similar products and pick the one with less total fat and less saturated fat. The example food above is very low in fat with only 0.8g of fat per 100g.

Carbohydrates – Total

This includes the combined total of starch and sugar in the food. Look at this value if you are considering the impact of the food on your blood glucose levels. If you are counting carbohydrates you can use this value to calculate the amount of carbohydrate in your serving of the food.

Carbohydrates – Sugars

This tells you how much of the total carbohydrate is sugar. This includes added sugar as well as naturally occurring sugars like lactose (milk sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar). Just looking at the amount of sugar will not predict the effect of the food on your blood glucose level, you need to look at the total amount of carbohydrate.

Look at the ingredient list to determine if the sugar is an added sugar or if it is coming from fruit, milk or yoghurt.

Dietary Fibre

Fibre content will only be listed on packaged foods that are plant based, like breads, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, crackers etc. Use the figure per 100g and pick the product that is highest in fibre. Aim to eat about 30g of fibre every day.

Sodium (salt)

Look for products that have the lowest amount of sodium per 100g. When it comes to many sauces, or canned products, look for those that are labelled reduced or no added salt.

The ingredient list

All packaged foods must have an ingredient list on the label. All ingredients (except water) are listed in descending order by weight, so you can work out roughly how much of the ingredient the food contains. You can use this information to help make the healthiest food choice.