Reading nutritional labels allows you to choose, check and compare between products, especially when it comes to choosing items that are lower in fats, sugar and salt.
Well done you have reached week 4, you are halfway there!
Don’t give up, keep calm and carry on!
Do you read food labels?
Reading food labels can help you make informed choices for the whole family.
Remember we mentioned eating a variety of fruit and vegetables. A good tip is to think of the colours of the rainbow to get you eating different types.
Ingredients list
Ingredients are listed in order of the highest weight. In the example on the right, the largest content is sugar and the lowest is white chocolate.
Allergens
There are 14 common allergens that must be declared on the ingredient list of prepacked foods. Allergenic ingredients are emphasized, for example they can be in bold, different colour or underlined.
Nutritional labelling
Most prepacked foods will also have nutritional labels giving details on calories, total fat and saturated fats, carbohydrate and of which are sugars, protein and salt. Details of additional nutrients can also be provided. The information is provided per 100g and may also include nutritional information per portion.
Traffic light labelling
Many food companies put traffic light labels which tell you if the products have low, medium or high amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt per serving or portion at a glance.
The table on the right shows you guidelines on what is high and low when reading food labels.
Claims
Nutrition and health claims can only be made when the product meets specific requirements.
For more information see: Food labelling terms
Download the Food scanner app to help you identify products that are high and low in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
Task for child/young person
- To look at 10 packaged nutritional food labels and identify ones that are low or high in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
- Complete the questions from week 1 and compare your answers to see how you are doing.
What is your weight?
How many minutes of exercise do you do per week?
How many portions of fruit and vegetables do you have per day?
How many glasses of water do you drink per day?
Do you read food labels?
Downloading the food scanner app can be a good way to start understanding about food labels. Get your kids to scan food/drink products to see the total amount of sugar, salt and fat!
When you go to the supermarket look out for the traffic light labelling on some packaged foods/drinks and see if it makes a difference to your choice.