FOOD LABELS  - what do they mean?

Reading and understanding the information on labels allows you to make informed choices about the food you purchase, and it makes shopping interesting.

What must be on a label?

Ingredient lists are compulsory on any manufactured foods.

Ingredients are listed in order of that found in the greatest quantity to that found in the least quantity. If there is no nutrition panel (which may occur on a limited number of products from countries other that New Zealand and Australia) an ingredient list can give you an indication of the health value of the product.

If fat, sugar or salt is at or near the top of the list, it may contain a large quantity of that particular ingredient. 

Sugar may be called raw sugar, sucrose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, lactose, golden syrup, corn syrup, treacle, honey, malt, malt extract, molasses, and palm sugar. 

Fat can be stated as triglycerides, animal oil, animal fat, vegetable fat, shortening, milk solids, tallow, lard palm oil, coconut cream, dripping, butter, margarine. 

Salt - rock salt, vegetable salt, baking soda, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, monosodium glutamate.

Here is a yoghurt label for an expamle

Many panels will also contain additional information if the product contains colouring,

flavouring, additives and nutritional claims that emphasise the nutritional benefits.

Some commonly used claims include

  • Reduced Fat- the food must contain at least 25% loss fat than the regular version of the

    product

  • Low fat or Low in Fat - the food is no more than 3 % fat- no more than 3g per 100g food.

  • No added sugar - means no added sugar - this include all sugars eg sucrose , maltose etc.

  • Cholesterol Free - the food must have less than 3 mg cholesterol per 100g of the food and

    must meet the requirement of “low fat “ claim or have saturated fat content below a

    certain level.

  • High Fibre or High in Fibre food must have 3g or more of fibre per serving.

Foods that contain ingredients that cause allergies such as peanuts, fish, seafood, wheat, milk,

soybean and eggs must be declared on the label.