How do you actually read a nutrition label – and what’s worth paying attention to?
Pick up almost any item in the supermarket and, tucked between the marketing slogans, you’ll spot a small panel of numbers and text. It might look dull, even confusing – but it’s the most important information about what you’re about to eat.
The stakes are high. When nuts weren’t listed on the nutrition label of viral Dubai-style chocolates recently, regulators including Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) ordered a product recall.
So how do you actually read a nutrition label – and what’s worth paying attention to? We asked University of Otago associate professor Dr Andrew Reynolds to explain.
Turn over the packet of food sitting next to you. See that little square that has headings like “servings per package” and “serving size” sitting about a list of numbers and terms including energy, protein and sodium - that’s a nutrition information panel (NIP).
Nutrition labels, including the NIP, provide crucial information about the nutrients, allergens and recommended quantities.
While nutrition labels on packaged foods are a mandated requirement in New Zealand, they’re not particularly “sexy” and don’t help sell the product.
“There’s a low impetus placed on them by the person who produces the food,” says Reynolds, who also serves as a technical adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO) nutrition guidance group.
“The front of pack labelling is much more driven towards catching people’s attention than the back of pack labelling, which is where the nutrition information panel sits.”
Reynolds also believes the nutrients listed in the New Zealand NIP were probably set “a long time ago” and aren’t often revisited.
Typical details an NIP includes are quantities of protein, fat, carbohydrate, sugars, sodium, serving size, quantity per 100g, and energy.
Some countries have added more details to their NIPs, for example, the United States include fibre content. In New Zealand, fibre content only needs to be listed on the label if a claim is made about fibre, sugar or carbohydrate, such as “high in fibre”, according to the FSANZ.
Not all foods have nutrition labels - you’re not going to spot one on the likes of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs.
When Reynolds goes for packaged foods, he looks for one element in particular: fibre.
“How that might be helpful is looking at breads and trying to find one with a higher [fibre number], normally a whole grain bread, versus a refined grain bread, which might not have as much fibre,” he says. “Fibre’s super important to me.”
Reynolds’ next priority is the level of saturated fat, followed by added sugars. Protein is less of a concern.
“Almost all New Zealanders have adequate protein intakes unless we look at older adults, who have an increased protein requirement.
“I personally don’t care about protein because most intakes in NZ are sufficient, but I do care about fibre because we don’t eat enough of it and it’s a protective [element], so the higher the better,” he says, later explaining that fibre reduces the amount of sugar and cholesterol that’s absorbed in digestion, increases satiety, and plays a role in lowering the risk of colon cancer.
“I care about saturated fats because the lower [the number] the better. More saturated fats in the diet are linked to increased heart attacks, and I do not want a heart attack.
“And then added sugars, because higher intakes are related to dental caries and body weight,” he explains.
Reynolds believes it’s more useful to look at the average quantity per 100g or 100mL column of an NIP, as serving sizes can be determined by the food company.
“A single ice cream could actually be considered three serves. If you look at the serving size, it’s not reflective of how much you’re going to eat, which is the whole ice cream.”
He says additives and preservatives are less of a concern for him, as those ingredients undergo a rigorous process by food-governing bodies before they can be included in the food supply.
Reynolds also notes the ingredients list, which is not part of the NIP, is ordered by quantity, starting with the ingredient with the highest quantity in the product.
“If you’re looking at something and it has sugar as its primary ingredient ... that’s probably a nice alarm bell to think about.”
According to Reynolds, high sodium intake is not only a problem many New Zealanders face, it’s a global problem.
“The sodium in our diet is the strongest predictor of high blood pressure, which is the strongest predictor of stroke,” explains Reynolds, adding that if he had high blood pressure, looking at the sodium category of the food label would zoom up on his priorities.
The WHO recommends a daily salt intake of less than 2000mg (a bit less than a teaspoon) for people over the age of 16. But according to the Heart Foundation, many Kiwi adults are consuming around 3400mg a day and one in five of us suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension.
“We have quite a high stroke burden,” says Reynolds.
Reynolds points out there are good reasons for food manufacturers to add sodium. It acts as a preservative in packaged food and also helps improve taste.
However, only 15% of the sodium we eat comes from when we add it to the food ourselves, he says.
“And that means 85% of it really comes from the packages, packaged foods we choose to eat.
“The sodium added to processed foods we buy and eat is the main reason why many people have hypertension, so if you are worried about hypertension and stroke, then looking at the sodium content on nutrition information panels can inform decisions on what to buy, with the lower the better.”
Energy is essentially the fuel that your body gets after eating food. On a nutrition label, this is typically broken down to kilojoules (kJ) or calories (kcal), depending on whether the country uses imperial or metric systems of measurement. As New Zealand uses the metric system, energy is shown in kJ on food labels.
“If we eat the food, then the body breaks down the fats, alcohol, protein and most carbohydrates during digestion to create energy,” says Reynolds.
“The body needs energy to function, but if we eat more than we need the body will store it in fat cells, saving it for future use.”
According to the WHO, how much energy one consumes should be in balance with how much one uses.
“To avoid unhealthy weight gain, total fat should not exceed 30% of total energy intake. Intake of saturated fats should be less than 10% of total energy intake, and intake of trans-fats less than 1% of total energy intake, with a shift in fat consumption away from saturated fats and trans-fats to unsaturated fats, and towards the goal of eliminating industrially-produced trans-fats,” reads a section on WHO’s website.
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, travel and more.