Knowing how to read food labels is something that we should all know how to do because it helps us make informed decisions about what we are buying, and ultimately consuming. In South Africa all food labels must comply with regulations to ensure we, as customers, are given clear information about the product at hand.
Here are a few helpful tips to help you make more informed choices when buying your food.
- A nutritional label usually contains the serving information at the very top, followed by overall calories, nutrient breakdown and finally the percent of recommended daily value of said nutrient. Noting the serving size on a nutritional label is key because what is listed as a serving size on the label, might not be what we interpret as a serving size ourselves.
- The ingredients list on the packaging is always listed in descending order by mass. In other words, the ingredient that is listed in the biggest amount, will be listed first and so on.
- “Best before” and “use by” don’t quite mean the same thing. “Best before” means that the product is still safe after the given date, but its quality is likely to be ‘best before’ that given date. “Use by” on the other hand is a date given, after which the product is no longer safe to consume.
- If a product is claiming specific benefits at the front of the packaging, it is mandatory to have a full nutritional information table on the packaging.
- Carbohydrates and added sugars. You might have noticed that food labels often list ‘carbohydrates’ and ‘added sugars’. The ‘carbohydrates’ are what is naturally present in the given food, where as the ‘added sugars’ are the sugars that are added to the product in the process of processing.
It is important to note that when it comes to labelling, there are regulations that protect us but clever marketing strategies are very common, which may affect our ability to make a non-bias decision.
