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How to Read a Nutrition Label
In December 2002, a food standards code was brought in to make it mandatory for most food labels to carry specific nutrient information. There are some exceptions such as food sold in small packages, food packaged in the presence of the purchaser, coffee and alcoholic beverages.
Nutrition labels assist you in understanding the nutritional qualities of foods, help you make healthy choices, and offer protection from foods that you may have an allergy or intolerance to. Nutritional messages, nutritional guidance and nutritional attributes of food will also be more available.
A nutrition label must carry a certain amount of nutrition information, all of which must be set out in a specific order. It must include, total kilojoules, protein, total fat , saturated fat , total carbohydrate , total sugars and sodium in that order. Manufacturers may wish to add other information, such as fibre, calcium, iron and other vitamins and nutrients, however, these are not mandatory.
The example below shows the order in which the nutrients should be presented.
NUTRITION INFORMATION
SERVINGS PER PACKAGE: 1 SERVING SIZE: 200 g
Per Serve Per 100 g
Energy 864 kJ 432 kJ
Protein 8.2g 2.5g
Fat - total - 5.0g 2.5g
- saturated fat 2.0g 1.0g
Carbohydrate - total 31.8g 27.8g
-sugars 15.9g 13.9g
Sodium 298mg 149mg
Ingredients: Full cream milk, concentrated skim milk, skim milk, sugar, thickener, vegetable gums, mineral salts, flavour, colours.
You can see that there is two columns for each nutrient. These are the ‘per serve column’ and the ‘per 100g column’. Above these columns is the number of servings per packet and the serving size. These are all mandatory inclusions. The ‘per serve’ and ‘per 100g’ column are both helpful for different reasons. The ‘per serve’ column means you are quickly able to work out your intake of nutrients if you were to eat 1 serving (eg 1 serve may equal 2 biscuits) of the food. The ‘per 100g’ column is very helpful when selecting between two products. If you are looking at low fat in biscuits then compare similar products to see which is the lowest fat in the ‘per 100g column’. While doing this, don’t forget the total kilojoules, as when fat is lowered, sugar and total carbohydrate are often raised. Therefore the lesson here is to compare total fat and total kilojoules per 100 grams.
It is also mandatory to have an ingredients section. Ingredients must be listed from most to least. That is, the ingredient that makes up most of the weight of the food is listed first and that which makes up least of the food is listed last. If a component or ingredient of the food is labeled specifically on the packaging, the ingredients list must state the percentage of key ingredients or components. For example, if the product is labeled ‘low fat’, the percent of fat must be stated. If the label reads ‘High Calcium’ then the quantity of calcium, as compared to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, needs to be stated.
Prescribed warnings and mandatory declarations will also be required on the labels of food products that have components that can cause allergies or severe reactions to individuals eg gluten, egg, milk etc.
If you come across a food label that you feel does not comply with these regulations, it is your right to contact the manufacturer for further information. If you like, email or phone us here at Perth Diet Clinic and we can assess the quality if the label for you, and assist you further.
Added to site on : Tuesday, 28 August 2012