Article by Marie Donnellan RNutr
With so much confusion and misinformation around nutrition, when we add in the complexity of looking at food labels, this for many of us can just be too much to take on!
There is no doubt that food labelling is complex, there are specific laws that govern what information must be available and other information which is voluntary. As a consumer it can be challenging, it takes time to understand this information and what it means.
The aim with this article is to help explain to you some of the key nutrition information to be aware of, when looking at food labels, in order to help you make a food choice that supports your specific health needs.
Food law establishes the rights of consumers to safe food and to accurate and honest information (1)
Key facts about nutrition labelling
Current EU laws require nutrition information to be shown for most prepacked foods (2):
- Specific mandatory information includes the energy value, the amounts of fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt.
- While the inclusion of information around monounsaturates, polyunsaturates, polyols, starch, fibre, vitamins and minerals are supplementary.
- There are also specific requirements about how and where the information is presented.
In general, food labelling should be clear, easy to read and not misleading.
Ingredient List
The list of ingredients is a mandatory requirement on the labelling of prepacked foods. Allergenic ingredients are in bold and italic.
The ingredients are listed in descending order i.e. the first ingredient listed has the largest quantity present and so on from there. The list usually appears at the back or side of the product. It can be useful to look at this, to see what the food is comprised of especially if you have an allergy or looking to reduce a certain component e.g. sugar or salt.
Sample ingredient list. Source: Canva
Nutritional Information
The nutrition information is displayed per 100g or 100ml and in some cases per recommended serving or portion size.
- It’s useful to compare products using the 100g or 100ml, that way its easy to identify the difference in quantities of the nutrients like; carbohydrates, sugars, protein and fats, etc present.
- It’s also worth looking at the recommended portion or serving size, as this maybe larger or smaller than what you usually consume.
- Reference Intakes (RIs) may also be included on the label. RIs have been set by European law and are based on an average adult’s daily intake. They are not targets, but a guideline to help make healthy dietary choices and a balanced daily intake. Labels generally include the % RI, which is the percentage of the RI that food contains.
Sample nutrition information label, Source: Canva
Traffic Light Labels
Some products may also provide a colour coding table, to show at a glance how high, medium, and low levels of fat, saturates, total sugars and salt are in the foods.
- This can be beneficial for example if monitoring your saturated fat intake to help in managing cholesterol, as outlined in the Food Shopping Card which shows what levels/100g are high = Red (choose sparingly), medium = Amber ( okay most of the time) and low = Green (better choice).
- A challenge with the traffic light label is that it does not include all nutrients, e.g. fibre. As most Irish adults do not have enough fibre in our diet its worth checking the fibre content of breads, cereals, rice and pasta where high fibre = 6g or more per 100g.
Food Shopping Card, Irish Heart Foundation (3)
Nutrition and health claims
Some products may make a specific nutrition claim e.g. “low in fat” or a “high in protein” or a health claim e.g. “Calcium is needed for the maintenance of normal bones” or “lowers cholesterol”.
These claims in relation to a product are regulated by the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA). To gain a better understanding of these claims The European Food Information Council (eufic) have an excellent article on What are Nutrition and Health Claims which explains this area further
(4). While it can be confusing to consumers, a little understanding of the claims and also looking at the ingredient list and nutritional label may help you make the best choice for you.
Hopefully it now seems less daunting trying to understand food labels. Looking at labels at home can be a good place to become more familiar with the label information on food, so that when you are in the shop it makes it easier to compare food products.
It’s also important to remember that everyone’s needs are different. Therefore, when looking at labels we may be looking for different things; it could low salt if we have high blood pressure, low saturated fat if we have high cholesterol, high fibre if we are looking to increase this or maybe high carbohydrates if we are exercising and have a higher energy need.
It’s certainly worth taking the time to look across the ingredients, nutritional information and claims if you have something specific that you are focusing on.
References
- Labelling and Nutrition, Food Safety. Available at: https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition_en.
- Labelling – nutrition information, Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Available at: https://www.fsai.ie/business-advice/labelling/labelling-nutrition-information.
- Food Shopping Card (2023) Irish Heart Foundation. Available at: https://irishheart.ie/publications/food-shopping-card/
- What are Nutrition and health claims? (no date) Eufic. Available at: https://www.eufic.org/en/healthy-living/article/what-are-nutrition-and-health-claims
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