Understanding Food Labels: What to Look For and What to Ignore

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Why Food Labels Are Confusing on Purpose

Food packaging is designed to sell products, not inform consumers. Words like “natural,” “wholesome,” “light,” and “free from” are often marketing language with little regulated meaning. The actual nutritional information is on the back or side of the pack, and it takes some practice to read it quickly and accurately.

The Nutrition Panel: What to Actually Look At

Most nutrition labels list values per 100g and per serving. The “per 100g” column is more useful for comparing products, since serving sizes vary widely between brands.

• Calories (energy): Relevant for overall dietary awareness, but a single number does not tell you how filling or nutritious a food is.
• Total fat and saturated fat: Total fat includes all types. Saturated fat is the figure worth watching more closely — high intakes over time are associated with raised LDL cholesterol. As a rough guide, more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g is considered high.
• Sugars: The label lists “of which sugars” under carbohydrates. This includes both added sugars and naturally occurring ones (from fruit, for example). More than 22.5g of sugars per 100g is considered high.
• Salt (sodium): More than 1.5g of salt per 100g is considered high. Some labels show sodium rather than salt — multiply sodium by 2.5 to convert.
• Fibre: Often listed but not always highlighted. Most adults do not eat enough fibre. A food with 6g or more of fibre per 100g is a meaningful source.

Ingredients List: Order Matters

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. If sugar, salt, or a type of fat appears in the first three or four ingredients, that product contains a significant amount of it. Long ingredients lists are not automatically bad, but they do suggest a more heavily processed product.

Front-of-Pack Claims: What to Ignore

• “No added sugar” does not mean the product is low in sugar — it may contain high-sugar ingredients like fruit concentrate, honey, or dried fruit.
• “Low fat” foods often compensate for reduced fat with added sugars.
• “High protein” products sometimes have only marginally more protein than standard versions.

When in doubt, look past the front of the pack and compare the per-100g figures between products. That one habit makes most front-of-pack claims irrelevant.