Liv Life Liverpool

How can I read food labels for healthy choices?

Checking food labels can help to make healthy balanced choices and eat the correct portion size. The numbers on the food label will show the amount of energy in calories (kcal) or kilojoules (KJ), per serving and per 100g. It can also display the amount of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt in a serving in number of grams (g) and as a share (%) of your daily allowance (RI).

Many labels are colour coded in red, amber and green to show at a glance whether a product is high, medium or low in fat, saturates, sugar or salt. It is best to choose foods with more greens and fewer reds on the label. In the absence of this colour code, look at the percentage of recommended intake (RI) in a portion to compare foods.

The guidelines for total fats are 17.g or above of fat per 100g is considered high and 3g or less per 100g is low.

Those for saturated fats are 5g or more is high and 1.5g or less is low. Sugar content is high if the label states 22.5g of total sugars per 100g and low if the product contains 5g or less and salt is high if there is 1.5g per 100g and low if there is 0.3g or less per 100g.

Other nutrient information must be displayed on the back of a product such as the ingredients and the nutrients contained in 100g, nutrients per serving or portion and the number of servings per pack.

The amount of protein, carbohydrate and fibre will also be listed on the food label.

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