What's on a Food Label?

Spending time reading food labels can be quite a revelation. Did you know the ingredients of any manufactured food product have to be listed on the ingredient list on the food label? These ingredients also have to be listed in the order of in going weight with the ingredient present in the largest amount listed first.

For example, a muesli bar that has the ingredients listed in this order: honey, rolled oats, dried fruit, wheat flour - would probably have a higher sugar content than a muesli bar that had the first four ingredients listed in this order: rolled oats, wheat flour, honey, dried fruit.

When looking at the ingredients list, it can also be helpful to learn some of the technical words used to describe food ingredients.

When looking for sugar on a label, other words to look for are: sucrose, fructose, glucose syrup, malt, maltose, dextrose, golden syrup, treacle and fruit juice concentrate.

When looking for fat on a label, other words to look for are: triglycerides, suet, dripping, vegetable oil, lard, copha, coconut cream and vegetable shortening.

The nutrition information panels have to show the content of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars and sodium, in an average serve and in 100g of the food.

Information from this panel can be used to check a food's nutritional value and also to compare one type of food with other similar foods. For example you might be interested in the fat or salt content of several different types of crackers. To compare the fat content of different types of crackers, look at how much fat per 100g each type of cracker has. Some crackers have almost as much fat as potato crisps!