Understanding Food Labels

• Why Read Food Labels

  • Know what's in the foods you eat
  • Compare similar products to make the choice that's right for you
  • Choose foods with more of the nutrients you want and less of the nutrients you don't
  • Connect food choices with personal health goals
  • Identify the presence of ingredients that need to be avoided, e.g. food allergies, intolerances and other dietary restrictions
• What's On a Food Label

  • Nutrition Facts table
  • List of ingredients
  • Front of package symbols
  • Nutrition claims
  • Nutrient content claims
  • Health claims
• Nutrition Facts Table


  Three types of information: Serving size, Calories, Nutrient information (amounts and % Daily Value)
• 12 core nutrients in Nutrition Facts Table

  • Fat
  • Saturated fat
  • Trans fat
  • Carbohydrate
  • Fibre
  • Sugars
  • Protein
  • Cholesterol
  • Sodium
  • Potassium
  • Calcium
  • Iron
• Serving Size


  The amount of food that will provide the number of calories and nutrients shown on the Nutrition Facts table
• Serving Size


  • 36 g of sugar = 9 tsp
  • Caramel Brulée Frappuccino® Blended Beverage (Venti = 24 oz ~ 720 ml) = 75 g of sugar = 19 tsp
• The serving size does not tell you how much you "should" eat. It tells you the amount of nutrients you get IF you eat that amount. Consider how much you eat compared to the serving size on the label.
• % Daily Value (%DV)

  Puts all nutrients on a scale of 0-100%
• % Daily Value (DV)

  • Consumers can use the %DV to determine whether there is a little or a lot of nutrient in a packaged food
  • Not specific to age, gender or increased needs (e.g. pregnancy, breastfeeding, growth, disease states)
• How is %DV calculated?

  1. Recommended Daily Value for Iron = 14 mg

  2. If one serving of a cereal has 4 mg of iron: 4/14 X 100= 28.5% daily value

  3. Eating one serving of this cereal gives you almost 1/3 of the iron needed in a day
• Benchmark for Sugars


  • Previous labels did not include %DV for sugars
  • No DRI for sugars to set a benchmark
  • Based on the amount of sugar in common foods
• Use the Nutrition Facts Table to Compare Products
• Foods that do not have a Nutrition Facts table


  • Fresh vegetables and fruit
  • Raw whole cuts of meat, fish and poultry
  • Foods sold where they are prepared, e.g. bakery rolls
  • Foods sold at Farmers' markets, craft fairs, roadside stands
  • Individual servings intended for immediate consumption
  • Foods that contain very few nutrients such as coffee, tea, vinegar, herbs and spices
  • Alcoholic beverages >0.5%
• List of Ingredients


  • Always appears on packaged food unless the product only has one ingredient
  • All the ingredients in a food are listed by weight from most to least
  • The place to look for information on allergens
• Words to Watch for in List of Ingredients

  • Saturated fat: butter, lard, tallow, shortening, coconut oil, palm or palm kernel oil, hydrogenated
  • Sodium: salt, garlic salt, onion salt, celery salt, monosodium glutamate, sodium benzoate, disodium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, brine
  • Sugars: white sugar, brown sugar, honey, molasses, syrup, invert sugar, glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose (words with "ose" except "sucralose" (= Splenda, an artificial sweetener))
• Front of Package Symbols

  • At-a-glance identification of packaged foods that are high in sodium, sugars and saturated fat
  • Estimate that about half of processed foods will have these symbols
  • Some exceptions: the ground meat controversy
• Nutrition Claims: Nutrient Content Claims


  See the definitions here
• Nutrition Claims: Health Claims


  See the definitions here
• • Food labels include the Nutrition Facts table, list of ingredients, front-of-package symbols and nutrition claims
  • Use of labels is governed by regulations; they are used on most packaged foods
  • Knowing how to read food labels is an important skill to help people follow a healthy eating pattern