Food Labels

Shopping used to be so simple, you'd walk down the high street and buy fresh fruit and vegetables from the greengrocer, meat from the butcher, fish from the fishmonger and bread from the baker and you knew exactly what you were buying. Today, supermarkets have made shopping more convenient and they also provide us with an incredibly wide choice of food. However, the manufacturing process that many foods goes through to make ready- made dishes and improve shelf life can make it difficult for us to know exactly what it is we are really eating.

Food labelling regulation requires that all foods be labelled with the following information:
. Name of the food
. List of ingredients
. Best before or use by date
. Any special storage information
. The name and address of the manufacturer or packer, or a seller established within the EU.


Currently the way the law stands, nutritional information is only required if the product is making a nutritional claim (e.g. low fat) for other products it is up to the manufacturer to volunteer the information. However, providing products that seem to offer healthy, low-fat options is big business for food manufacturers. So whilst food labels are designed to tell us more about the product and should be helpful if you're trying to eat healthily, and be careful with your diet, there is lots of information on food labels that can be confusing.

Low-Fat, Fat-Free, Reduced Fat - these claims should not be taken at face value for example a product that promotes itself as 93% fat free would not be low fat as it would be 7% fat!.

No added sugar - Unsweetened - this does not mean that the product will have a low sugar content. It may contain artificial sweeteners or natural sugars from fruits, you need to check the ingredients to get the full picture.

It's worth remembering that labels are there to help sell the product as well as provide information so you need to understand what you are looking for, and what the information actually means.