Why should you read food labels?

Why shouldn’t you? After all, your life may depend on it. Like, the product could contain an ingredient that one is allergic to. Food labels also provide vital info if you’re trying to stick to a regimen.

What’s in a food label? A lot! For one thing, it tells us the kind of food that’s inside the packet, can or box; the amount of food in it; the country of origin of the product; details of the manufacturer and the local distributor. The food label tells us the ingredients that make up the food and sometimes, the nutritional value of the food.

Food labels come in handy when you want to compare the nutrition information of food products, you want to use the nutrition info to plan your daily meals, and you want to know the guides to daily dietary intakes for adults and children.

Stop, look and read this:

• Product name: The product name or brand name describes the type of food. For example, pitted prunes or breakfast cereal.

• Ingredient list: This is like a recipe, it lists what’s in the food. Foods that contain more than one ingredient must list their ingredients on the label. There’s no need for an ingredient list if there’s only one ingredient.

The ingredient list is a virtual giveaway as to what the product is about. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. Thus, the first ingredient listed is the one with the highest amount, followed by the one with the next highest, and so forth and so on.

Take this example of an ingredient list on a loaf of bread:

Ingredients: High protein flour, water, granulated cane sugar, vegetable shortening, baker’s yeast, salt, soy flour, dough conditioners, vitamin C, calcium, iron, calcium propionate. The list tells us that high protein flour is the main ingredient, followed by water.

• Fats and oils may be listed as vegetable oils, dripping lard, shortening or hydrogenated vegetable oils. All this means that a fat or oil has been added. Fats and oils have similar energy values. But they may be saturated (from animal sources or tropical oils) or unsaturated (like safflower, sunflower or soybean oil).

• Sugar may be listed as cane sugar, brown or raw sugar, icing sugar, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, maltose, fructose, molasses, corn syrup or honey. These are all sugars and their nutritional and energy values are the same. Then there are the artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin and acesulfame which, if used, should also be listed in the ingredient list.

• Salt is sometimes listed as sodium chloride, but it can also be listed as rock salt, sea salt or vegetable salt. Sodium is also present in food additives such as monosodium glutamate (the dreaded MSG), baking powder, sodium metabisulphite, and sodium benzoate.

• Food additives are added to improve the taste, appearance, nutritional value or flavor of food and to keep its quality. For instance, emulsifiers (lecithin, monoglycerol) are added to keep ingredients blended. Anti-caking agents (calcium silicate, silicon dioxide) to stop ingredients from sticking together or clumping. Humectants (glycerine, sorbitol) to keep food moist and soft. Stabilizers and thickeners (methyl cellulose, guar gum) to help ensure a smooth and uniform texture. Antioxidants (vitamin E, ascorbyl palmitate) to help keep food from spoiling. Colorings to restore color lost from food during processing or to add color (listed as a code number like colouring 342 or "permitted colourings"). Flavourings (herbs, spices, vanilla flavour) to flavor a food. Vitamins and minerals (vitamin C, calcium, iron) to increase the nutritional value of a food.

And of course, the first thing most conscious consumers look at is the expiry date, which guarantees the freshness of the product. Manufacturers say it in different ways: Like "Use by...," "Sell by...," or "Packed on..." So when you read a date mark that says "Use by 18 Mar 2003, it means that the quality of that product is best before Mar 18, 2003.

Some thoughtful manufacturers include storage instructions in their products. Such as: "Refrigerate after opening." Which means that if you don’t follow this instruction, the product will not last until the "Use by..." date.

• Nutrition Information Panel: Need to know how many grams of fat in a serving of the product? The Nutrition Information Panel has got this and more.

Take this example:

Bread rolls, 220g net weight

Nutrition information

Servings per package 4; serving size approx 55g per; protein 5.6g; fat 1.9g; saturated fat 1.0g; cholesterol 0mg; carbohydrate 26.8g; fiber 1.2g; sodium 58mg.

From this panel you know that: There are four servings (rolls) in the packet, each weighing 55 grams. You can tell that each roll has 5.6 grams of protein, 1.9 grams of fat (of which one gram is saturated), 26.8 grams of carbohydrate, 1.2 grams of fiber, and 58 milligrams of sodium.

Happy reading!