You can potentially learn a lot from a food label: fat content, sodium level, what additives have been used and what allergens to look out for, among other things. But until the new food regulations were gazetted in March, clever marketeers often used food labels to convince us of a whole plethora of product benefits – some of which never existed at all!
That’s about to change. By this time next year, food labels will tell a completely different story. Here’s how to decipher what they’ll say:
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Nutrition information is voluntary unless a claim is made
The new food labelling regulations only make nutritional information mandatory if the manufacturer makes a claim about the food. You won’t see nutritional information on all foods. Sadly, I think this is an opportunity missed to really educate consumers and provide them with the necessary information to make best/healthier choices! Hopefully, however, many manufacturers will voluntarily provide nutritional information. This is something we, as consumers, should start demanding. The good news, though, is that when nutritional information is given, it has to be in a standard table format giving specific information per serving (the serving size chosen by the manufacturer) and per 100g – allowing you to make comparisons between products. The nutrients that have to be included are:
- energy (in kilojoules)
- protein
- dietary fibre
- and sodium
And the really good news is that, in addition to having to provide the values for glycaemic carbohydrate and total fat, manufacturers will also now have to declare total sugar and saturated fat.
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Ingredients list
Where nutritional information is not provided, the ingredients list will give you some idea of the nutritional composition of the food. It is still mandatory to list all the ingredients in the descending order of mass contained in the end product. So, if you see fat right near the top you know the product is likely to be fairly high in fat. In addition:
- Additives must be included (in the past they could just be listed at the end)
- If an ingredient was originally concentrated or dehydrated, this must be stated. For example “reconstituted orange juice concentrate”
- Fats and oils must specify the exact origin, ie: “vegetable“, “animal”, “fish” or “marine”, and vegetable oils need to state the particular part of the plant the fat was derived from such as “sunflower seed vegetable oil” or “palm kernel vegetable oil”. It is also mandatory for hydrogenated fats/oils to be declared – this is important because hydrogenated vegetable oil is probably as bad for you as saturated fat!
- Clearer allergen labelling in the ingredients list is also required, as well as a declaration of the exact amounts of certain ingredients (see below).
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Quantitative ingredient declaration or QUID
Where a food label places special emphasis on the presence of an ingredient, the manufacturer must declare the percentage of that ingredient at the time of manufacture. For example, the label on a “chicken and mushroom pie” would need to declare the percentage of both chicken and mushroom that it contains, or a “nut loaf” would need to declare the total amount of nut. However, there are a number of exclusions where QUID is not required. For example, while one understands that a single ingredient food, such as frozen peas, would be excluded from this regulation, “Lemon Cream Biscuits” – which have never included real lemons or cream in the recipe – are also excluded as this is a recognised “customary name”. Manufacturers may place the required percentage in one of three places on the label, but it is most likely you’ll find it in the ingredients list after the name of the specific ingredient that has been emphasised. With the “chicken and mushroom pie” for example, you could expect the ingredients list to look something like this; “Ingredients: water, chicken (15%), starch, mushrooms (8%), onions, celery, sunflower seed vegetable oil, salt, tomato paste”.
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