Being able to understand the information provided on the food labels of packaged foods is important for everyone. But what exactly do all the numbers on our food labels mean and what should you be looking for when choosing which foods to put in your trolley?
There are two main parts to a food label when it comes to nutrition – the ingredient list and the nutrition information panel.
The ingredient list is often overlooked but is an important part of a food label. It lists each of the ingredients in the product, from the greatest to the smallest amount by weight. This can help you to determine where the protein, fats, carbs and other nutrients in the food are coming from. If added sugars, fats and salt are among the first few ingredients or if it’s full of things that you don’t recognise as food, it’s probably something you want to leave out of your trolley.
The nutrition information panel (NIP) provides information on the amount of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars and sodium in the food. If the food makes a claim about other nutrients (such as being high in fibre or a good source of calcium), details of these must also be included in the NIP. The panel is shown as a table with the amounts of these nutrients per 100g serve (or 100ml for a liquid) and the amount per serve.
With the ‘per serve’ amounts, the serving size is specified by the manufacturer and is included on the NIP. Be aware that this may not be the amount you eat, and if your serving size is different you will need to calculate the correct amount for your serve.
What to look for on the NIP
Energy refers to the number of calories or kilojoules in a food and takes into account the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrate that food contains.
Your energy needs will depend on a number of factors including your age, sex, activity levels and whether you are trying to lose, gain or maintain your weight, but to maintain weight the average adult female needs about 8800 kilojoules each day and the average male needs 10600 kilojoules. If you are trying to lose weight you will need less and if you are very active you may need more.
Knowing your energy needs can help you to work out how a particular food fits into your daily eating plan.
Fat refers to the total amount of fat in the product, but food labels are also required to include the saturated fat content of the product. Aim to choose products where most of the fat comes from monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats rather than saturated fat. It’s also important to avoid trans fats which can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Trans fats are produced when a liquid oil is turned into solid fat in a process called hydrogenation. Unfortunately, there’s no mandatory labelling for trans fats in Australia, unless a claim is made about cholesterol or saturated, trans or other fats. However, some manufacturers choose to include them, so look for products with no trans fats, particularly when buying products like pastries, biscuits, snacks and fried foods.
It’s also important to understand that fat contains more energy per gram than protein and carbohydrate so can add up the kilojoules quickly. So, if you’re trying to lose weight, reducing fat intake can help.
To be labelled ‘low fat’ a product must have 3g/100g or less of fat and to be labelled ‘low saturated fat’ it must have 1.5g/100g or less of saturated fat.
Carbohydrate on a food label includes the total amount of carbs from both starches and sugars. Spreading your carbohydrate intake over the day, avoiding large serves at one meal and eating a similar intake of carbohydrate from day to day will help in managing your weight. A good guide would be to aim for around 30-45g of carbs at meals and 15-20g for snacks, but this will vary depending on your weight and activity levels and it is important to get some individualised advice regarding your specific needs.
Sugars refer to the total amount of sugars in the food, both added sugars and those naturally occurring (e.g. lactose in milk products and fructose in fruit). So, understanding the source of the sugars in the food is important when deciding if a food product is suitable and this is where the ingredient list can help.
For example, with milk and yoghurt most of the carbohydrate they contain is the natural milk sugar, lactose. While flavoured milks and yoghurts also contain added sugars, the natural/plain varieties don’t. Similarly, fruit (whether fresh, canned or dried) contains carbohydrate in the form of the naturally occurring fruit sugar, fructose. When eating these foods, the naturally occurring sugars come along with other beneficial nutrients and dietary fibre (in the case of fruit) and are slowly digested and absorbed (they have a low glycemic index, or GI) so there’s no need to avoid them although they need to be considered as part of your overall carb intake.
Added sugars, on the other hand, are best kept to small amounts, particularly if they are part of foods with little other nutritional value like soft drinks and lollies.
Dietary Fibre isn’t shown on all food labels, as not all foods contain fibre. Fibre is found in plant foods including fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Eating more fibre can help with weight management, heart health and digestive health.
Most adults should aim for at least 25-30g per day but research shows that the average Australian is only getting about half of this amount. Eating more fruit, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains is the best way to get more fibre but when choosing packaged foods like breads, cereals, crackers, rice and pasta, choose those with a higher fibre content.
Products containing more than 3g of fibre per serve are considered high fibre.
Sodium is included on all food labels and something we should take note of. Eating too much salt, or sodium, can lead to high blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Aim for no more than 2300mg per day and even less (1600mg/day) if you have high blood pressure. While not adding salt to your meals or cooking is a good start, most of the sodium in our diet actually comes from processed foods, so always check the sodium content when shopping and go for products with lower sodium levels.
Products with less than 120mg of sodium per 100g are considered low in sodium.
What about GI and how is this different from the carbs and sugars?
The glycemic index (or GI for short) doesn’t relate to the amount of carbs or sugars in a food, but instead is a measure of the rate of digestion and absorption of a food and in turn, how quickly or slowly it will raise blood glucose levels. Both the GI and the total amount of carbs in a food are important in determining how a food will impact your blood glucose levels.
Unfortunately, the GI of a food isn’t simple to measure – it’s tested in real people and can’t be determined by the composition of the food. For this reason, you’ll only see the GI value on a relatively small range of food products, although it’s increasing all the time.
To be sure that a food has been properly tested, look out for the official GI symbol . You can also get a copy of The Low GI Diet Shoppers Guide which lists the GI values of all the foods which have been tested in Australia.
For foods that do include a GI value on the label, a value of less than 55 is considered ‘low GI’, 55-70 is considered ‘moderate GI’ and over 70 is considered ‘high GI’.
What about health Star Ratings?
The Health Star Ratings program was first implemented in mid-2014 as a way to allow shoppers to compare similar packaged food and help in making healthier choices. It’s still voluntary but is increasingly being used by food manufacturers to label their products.
The labelling system rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged foods and gives them a rating from ½ a star to 5 stars, with more stars meaning the food is a healthier choice. The ratings are based on the energy (kilojoule) content of the food, and the amount of ‘risk’ nutrients (saturated fat, sodium or salt, and sugar) and ‘positive’ nutrients including dietary fibre, protein and the content of fruit, vegetable, nut and legumes in the product.
The labelling program isn’t perfect so it’s still important to check the ingredient list and nutrition panel. However, the Health Star Rating is one easy way to compare similar packaged foods.
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