Nutrition Labelling — tiphandnutrition

Knowing how to interpret nutrition information labels empowers us to make informed decisions about the foods and drinks we buy. It’s not about checking every single product, and to be fair, most of us don’t have the time when we shop. Yet, it’s helpful to know the important parts and what they mean. So keep reading to understand more about food labelling, how to read them, and a few tips to make shopping easier!

What is nutrition labelling?

Most prepackaged foods and drinks have a nutrition information label. It is a legal requirement for companies to provide a certain amount of information on their labels. These are designed to give us the information we need to make an informed decision about the foods and drinks we eat.

The mandatory information list for the EU includes:

Name of food or drink
List of ingredients
Any ingredient causing allergies or intolerances used in the preparation
Net weight or volume
Date mark (‘use by date’)
Storage conditions and preparation instructions
Name and address of the manufacturer, packer or seller
Country of origin or place of provenance
Alcoholic strength for beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol
Nutrition declaration

Some foods don't have a label - for example fresh fruit and vegetables or bread at a bakery - however that information should still be displayed or provided if asked for.

Back-of-pack nutrition label

The back-of-pack - or side of the pack sometimes - generally shows the ingredients, allergens, nutrition declaration, storage conditions, cooking instructions and date indications.

So let’s take a closer look at each piece of information.

Ingredients

The ingredients show us what the product contains. Ingredients are always listed in quantity order - descending order of their weight. This means the first ingredient in the list is present in the largest amount, while the last ingredient listed is present in the least amount in the product. For example, if an ingredient such as sugar is towards the start of the listing, we know that the product contains a greater portion of sugar within the recipe.

In the ingredients list, any allergen contained in the product must be emphasised so they are easy to identify - in bold lettering or underlined. Some products also have the warning ‘May contain’, which means the allergen is not in the actual product but there is a risk of cross-contamination in the food-making process - e.g. a biscuit without nuts can be made in a factory where other products with nuts are made.

The 14 most common allergens are:

Celery
Mustard
Sesame
Sulphur dioxide & sulphites
Lupin
Molluscs - e.g. oysters & mussels

Cereals containing gluten - e.g. wheat, rye, barley & oats
Crustaceans - e.g. crabs, prawns & lobsters
Eggs
Fish
Peanuts
Soybeans
Milk
Nuts - e.g. almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios & macadamia nuts

Nutrition Declaration

The nutrition declaration is a label that informs us of a product's energy and nutrient content. It must be shown ‘per 100g’ or ‘per 100ml’ to help us compare different products, but it can also be displayed ‘per portion’ or ‘per pack’ in addition.

The nutrition declaration must include the amount of energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugar, protein and salt in the product. It can also include other information like monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, polyols, starch, fibre and certain vitamins or minerals permitted by law and present in a significant amount, but these are not mandatory.

For the energy or calories, there are 2 units of measurement used - kilojoules (KJ) and kilo calories (kcal) - and both must be shown on the label. Both values mean the same thing, it is just different ways of expressing them. Mostly, we refer to energy as calories.

The fat part of the label shows both total fat and saturated fat - saturates - as we want to make sure we eat less saturated fats due to their effect on our cholesterol which increases our risk of heart disease and stroke.

Similarly, the carbohydrate part shows both total carbohydrates and total sugar - sugar is a type of carbohydrate. As the sugar indicated is the total sugar, this includes both the sugar added to the product, and the naturally occurring sugar found in milk, fruit, vegetables, and plants.

The salt content can be either shown as ‘salt’ or ‘sodium’ - which aren’t exactly the same thing. Salt is the one we need to look out for, and if the label only shows ‘sodium’ then we can figure out the amount of salt by multiplying the sodium amount by 2.5. Keep in mind we should be aiming to have less than 5g per day of salt.

The nutrition declaration can also include portion size or serving. The portion size is suggested by the manufacturer, meaning they decide what portion size they recommend and it may not be based on any recommendations. It is important to remember that the recommended portion size is a rough guide and may not reflect a typical portion or the portion we need as individuals.

Finally, some manufacturers add reference intakes - particularly if they have provided information on vitamins and minerals in the product. Reference intakes are based on the recommendations for the daily amount of nutrients we need to maintain health and are presented as a percentage. Keep in mind the reference intake are not suitable for everyone as they are based on the average requirement for women - 2000 kcals per day - and many people need more than this due to their body sizes, activity level, etc.

Use-by date

Most products will have a ‘best-before’ or ‘use-by’ date depending on the product. The ‘best-before’ date refers to the quality of the product, meaning it is the date until which the product keeps its specific flavour and texture, after which these may deteriorate. This doesn’t mean the product is unsafe to consume after the date. While the ‘use-by’ date refers to the product's safety. This means that products should not be consumed after this date as it may impact health - e.g. food poisoning.

Front-of-pack nutrition label

Some products will present a front-of-pack nutrition label which presents a simplified version of the nutrition information designed to help with food choices in an easier way. Often it is either a partial repetition of the information found in the nutrition declaration - energy, fats, saturates, sugars and salt - or gives an overall idea of the nutritional quality of the product through colour coding, letters, graphics or symbols.

Let’s take a look at 2 examples of front-of-pack nutrition labelling: the UK traffic light scheme and the Nutri-Score.

The UK traffic light labelling is a voluntary scheme which highlights the amount of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt by serving or portion of food, and uses a colour coding to classify the quantity of these nutrients:

Green (low) - the more green lights a label has, the healthier the product is.

Amber (medium) - mostly amber lights mean the product is fine to eat most of the time.
Red (high) - mostly red lights we should try to eat less often or in smaller amounts.

The Nutri-score - 5 colour nutrition label - categorises foods and drinks into 5 coloured categories which are associated with the letters A, B, C, D or E. This scheme helps distinguish products with a higher nutritional quality - dark green with the letter A - from products with a lower nutritional quality - red with the letter E.

The advantages to the front-of-pack labelling are that it can help encourage healthier diets, making it easier to compare products and that the front-of-pack gets more attention than the back-of-pack. Nonetheless, there are limitations to this labelling as it only provides us with a snapshot of the product and is sometimes over-simplified - focusing only on a few nutrients. Choosing only ‘green’ products may not mean we have a healthy diet. Some products would score more towards the ‘reds’, but actually form part of a healthy and balanced diet - dairy products or nuts can be high in fat, but provide us with important healthy fats, protein and calcium. Additionally, having rules such as completely avoiding ‘red’ products may damage our relationship with food.

Nutrition & Health Claims

Nutrition and health claims are statements that can be used on product labels to show it has a particular characteristic. Both types of claims are regulated, should be evidence-based and shouldn’t be misleading.

Nutrition claims are about the energy or nutrient content of a product. They imply that a product has beneficial nutritional properties due to having more or less energy or nutrients. There is a specific list of approved health claims companies can make on their product, for example:

Source of fibre - the product contains at least 3 g of fibre per 100g.
High in fibre - the product contains at least 6 g of fibre per 100g.
Low fat - the product contains no more than 3 g of fat per 100g for solids or 1,5g of fat per 100 ml for liquids.
Sugar-free - the product contains no more than 0,5 g of sugars per 100g or 100 ml.

Health claims are about the link between certain nutrients and health. Only approved health claims are allowed to be used on food labels. Some examples include:

Calcium is needed for the maintenance of normal bones.
Iron contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
Vitamin D contributes to the normal function of the immune system.
Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass.
Beta-glucans contribute to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels.

It’s important to remember that these claims look at just the energy or 1 nutrient with no account for the other nutrients found in the product. This means that although a product may be ‘low fat’ it may have high levels of added sugar for example.

6 Final Tips

Front-of-pack labelling can help us quickly find out some information about products and compare them, however, we need to be mindful that they only provide a limited snapshot of the product and products with more ‘reds’ should not be completely off-limits.
Scan the ingredients keeping in mind they are in order of weight from biggest to smallest and allergens are highlighted in bold or underlined.
When looking at the nutrition declaration, use the 100g column to compare products as portion sizes vary. The nutrients to look out for are saturated fat, sugar and salt as they are the ones that impact our health.
Keep in mind that products such as fruit, vegetables, and milk products have naturally occurring sugars which will appear in their sugar content. This doesn’t mean we should be limiting these foods, but rather the opposite as they provide valuable nutrients for our health.
Don’t focus on the portion size or reference intakes. The portion size is determined by the manufacturer and is not based on recommendations, while the reference intake is based on women’s requirements, so both may actually be irrelevant.
Reading food labels may not always be a good idea for everyone, particularly if we have a difficult relationship with food. So we need to think about whether reading food labels is something that will help us or trigger anxiety about food.