National Nutrition Week | Read labels and understand consumption - Become a nutrition and health expert

Faced with a wide variety of foods, how can we develop a keen eye by mastering some knowledge about labels and build a warm barrier for the nutrition and health of ourselves and our families?
This article selects several frequently asked questions about tags to help you learn some basic knowledge about tags.

1. What is a food label? What does it contain?

Prepackaged foods (pre-packaged, pre-measured foods) will have labels. Food labels are a form of information conveying to consumers, showing the characteristics and properties of food.
According to my country's requirements, labels should contain the following basic elements: food name, ingredient list, net content and specifications, producer and (or) operator name, address and contact information, production date and shelf life, storage conditions, food production license number, product standard code, etc.
In addition to the above, equally important are nutrition labels that display the nutritional information of the product to consumers.

2. How to read the ingredient list on food packaging?

The food ingredient list is an important aspect to distinguish one food from other foods, and is also an important evidence for identifying food properties. There are three main aspects to the labeling requirements of ingredients: the first is the principle of descending order (ingredients added in an amount not exceeding 2% may not be arranged in descending order); the second is the principle of labeling all raw materials; and the third is the principle that food additives must be labeled.
Let’s take coffee as an example to further explain:

First product:

Food name: "XX coffee";
Ingredients: "coffee beans";

Second product:

Food name: "XX White Coffee";
Ingredients: "White sugar, non-dairy creamer, skimmed milk powder, coffee powder, caramel color, cocoa powder, edible flavoring".

It is not difficult to see from the above two examples that the first one is real coffee, and the second one is a mixed product with added white sugar (ranked first, indicating that it accounts for the highest proportion of the ingredients), non-dairy creamer, milk powder, additives (caramel color), flavors, etc.

It is important to emphasize that both products mentioned above are safe and meet regulatory requirements. It is for this reason that we can see a wide variety of foods on the market. But this is a consumer tip: if you like to drink mixed coffee, it is fine to choose the latter; but if you want to drink pure coffee, you may not get what you want if you blindly choose without looking at the ingredient list.

3. What is a food nutrition label?

Nutrition labeling refers to the description of food nutrition information and characteristics provided to consumers on pre-packaged food labels, including nutrition facts, nutrition claims and nutrition function claims.

The Nutrition Facts table is usually on the back and is a standardized table that includes the name of the nutrient, its content, and the percentage of the Nutrient Reference Value (NRV). In addition, the "high calcium", "low fat", "reduced sugar" and so on you see are called nutritional claims, and "calcium helps make bones and teeth stronger" is called a nutrient function claim.

4. How to understand the nutritional information table?

Let’s take the nutritional composition table of a certain nut as an example to explain in detail:

The energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates and sodium in the leftmost column of the table above are required to be labeled in my country, which we call the mandatory labeling "1+4". Whether other ingredients in food such as "calcium", "iron", "vitamin A" etc. need to be displayed is voluntarily labeled by the company based on the characteristics of the product.

The values ​​indicated in the middle column of the nutritional ingredient table are the corresponding content values, which are generally expressed as per 100g and/or per 100ml and/or per serving.
The rightmost column in the table shows the percentage of each nutrient in the product to its nutrient reference value (NRV%). Since it is difficult for consumers to tell the level of a particular nutrient in food from the numbers, it is easier to understand if it is expressed as a percentage.

For example, the fat content in the above 100g of nuts is 44.8g, and the percentage of fat NRV is calculated to be "75%". It is believed that if you eat 100g of this product, it can probably meet 75% of the fat required for an adult in a day (due to different heights, weights, physical activity levels, etc. for each person, the demand varies), so if you eat other foods high in fat, you need to control your intake appropriately.

5. Where do the numbers in the nutrition facts table come from? Are they credible?

In fact, there is no need to worry too much about this. my country's standards require that the nutritional value on food labels can be obtained through raw material calculations or product testing, and companies must have reliable evidence before they can write these numbers on the label.

Many companies come to this conclusion based on data from multiple product tests. For some foods with simpler ingredients, the nutritional content of the ingredients is calculated or directly listed using data from my country's authoritative nutritional composition tables.

Now both public awareness and regulatory efforts are gradually strengthened. Generally speaking, companies dare not and will not make random labeling.

6. Can companies simply claim that their products are “high in calcium” or “low in fat”?

All foods cannot make random claims. Only those that meet the requirements of our country's standards can make corresponding claims.

For example, although milk itself has a high calcium content, not all milk can be called "high-calcium" milk. Only when the calcium content in every 100ml of milk is greater than or equal to "120mg" can it be claimed; if it is lower than this value but a claim is made, it is an unqualified claim.

Similarly, our country also has corresponding requirements for "low fat", "no trans fatty acids", "rich in vitamin C", etc. Only when the content requirements are met can the claims be made, so you can buy products that suit you based on these claims on the label.

7. How can you tell from the label whether you are buying formula milk or milk beverage?

There are several approaches you can take:

Method 1:

Look at the product type marked on the label. Sometimes the company's marking is relatively small or in an inconspicuous place, but if you look carefully, you can still find it;

Method 2:

Look at the ingredient list of the product on the label. We know that the ingredients in the ingredient list are arranged from high to low, so for milk-containing beverages with low milk content, "water" will generally be ranked first; and the milk content of modified milk cannot be less than 80%, so "milk" will generally be ranked first on its ingredient list;

Method 3:

Look at the nutrition facts table on the product label. The biggest difference between the two types of products is the protein content. The protein content of formula milk should be greater than or equal to 2.3g/100g, while that of milk-containing beverages is around 1.0g/100ml.

8. Do “sugar-free” drinks really contain no sugar? Why do they still taste sweet?

"Sugar-free" in beverages means that the sugar content in every 100ml of beverage is equal to or less than 0.5g. Sugar is a type of carbohydrate. In this case, there will be two situations in the nutritional information table of the product. One is that the carbohydrate content is directly marked as 0, and the other is that the carbohydrate content is marked as 0 and the sugar content is also marked as 0. Both situations are correct.

This type of beverage tastes sweet because some sweeteners are added, which will be marked in the ingredient list. Aspartame, acesulfame potassium, cyclamate, etc. are all common sweeteners in beverages.

Author: Han Junhua | Secretary General and Researcher of Chinese Nutrition Society