Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Tuesday, 24 August 2010.
Tagged: additives, food labels, FSANZ, guides, label, oil, salad, sugar, tips
What's really in that food you're about to buy? Let's use a hypothetical salad dressing and find out what we can glean by simply reading down the list of ingredients on the back of the pack. This is the method I use to assess any new product.
All ingredients must be listed in order of decreasing weight. The first on the list is the largest, followed by the second, the third, and so on.
Sample food label
SUNFLOWER OIL (60%), WATER, VINEGAR (8%), |
Compare my simplified list of ingredients with one from a commercial French dressing below. Similar ingredients, just more of them!
On food labels, fat can appear as:
On food labels, sugar can appear as:
Rule of thumb: If some form of sugar appears as one of the first THREE ingredients, the food is generally high in added sugar.
A characterising ingredient is one which gives the food its character. For example:
The percentage of the key ingredient in a product MUST be shown in the list of ingredients. Remember it may not necessarily be the main ingredient in terms of weight.
In this salad dressing which is called "French salad dressing with garlic", there are 3 characterising ingredients:
Some ingredients such as peanuts, seafood, fish, gluten, milk, soybeans and eggs can commonly trigger allergic reactions and so must be declared on the label. This is helpful for allergy sufferers. However it's not always smooth sailing.
While these allergens may not be part of the food, they may accidentally be in the food if it was manufactured in premises with other foods. Which explains those legalistic statements "May contain nuts" or "Made on premises that also manufacturers with nuts".
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