Food labelling (summary)

Food labelling uses red-amber-green traffic light colour coding to give you, at a glance, an idea of whether a product is high, medium, or low in total fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugars.

The traffic light colour scheme says if a food is:

• High in a nutrient, it is red.
• Medium in a nutrient, it is amber.
• Low in a nutrient, it is green.

Food labelling also tells you how much energy, or calories, is in one portion of that food. The recommended daily calorie allowance for men is 2,500kcal; and for women it’s 2,000kcal.

Food labels can help you to make healthier and better choices when deciding what food and drink products to buy.

Checking the food label each time you buy food can help you to take control of your diet and eating habits.

It is law that manufacturers must list all ingredients in food on the label. They are shown with the highest amount by weight first. They are then listed in order by decreasing weight.

By looking at the both the traffic lights system and the ingredients list, this can help you make more informed choices.

It is important to know how much sugar has been added to your product. You can do this by looking at the ingredients list.

Sugar is often not listed as ‘sugar’ in the ingredients list. There are different types of sugar. Most of their names have ‘OSE’ written after them. For example, glucOSE, dextrOSE, fructOSE, lactOSE, maltOSE, sucrOSE.

If you do not know if sugar has been added to food, look for the words ending with ‘OSE’ in the ingredients list. This will show you if the food has had sugar added to it.