Label reading made easy

Top tips for understanding food labels

The supermarket has thousands of different products to choose from, so how do we know which are the healthiest to buy?

Buying whole foods (e.g. fruit and vegies) is best, but we know pre-packaged foods can make life easier.  Follow these label reading tips to shop smarter.

1. Check the front of the pack for the Health Star Rating

The Health Star Rating on packaged foods gives the food a star rating from ½ a star to 5 stars and is a quick and easy way to compare similar foods.

This means you compare like foods e.g. yoghurt with yoghurt or breakfast cereal with breakfast cereal – don’t compare yoghurt products with breakfast cereal products.

When comparing like foods – choose the product that has more stars.

Some foods don’t have a Health Star Rating so looking at the ingredients list and Nutrition Information Panel can be helpful.

2. Look at the ingredients list

The ingredients in a product are listed in order from the largest amount to the smallest amount. This means the product contains more of the first ingredient.

Choose products with the smallest number of ingredients on the list, as they are usually less processed. Look for whole food ingredients like oats, wholemeal flour, nuts, seeds and legumes like chickpeas.

Limit products with ingredients that will contribute saturated fat, salt or added sugars. Check out our table below for names that can be used on the label to describe fat, sugar or salt.

3. Look at the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP)

The NIP displays information on the food’s energy (kilojoules), protein, total fat, saturated fat, total carbohydrate, sugars, sodium (salt), and sometimes other nutrients such as dietary fibre or calcium. The amount in the food is provided per 100g or 100mL and per serve.

Use the per 100g or 100mL column to compare similar products as serve sizes differ between brands.

Here’s a guide to what to look for on the per 100g column:

Look for products with the lowest numbers for saturated fat, sugar and sodium and the biggest numbers for fibre and calcium.

4. Nutrition and other claims

Nutrition content claims

Many products have claims on their labels such as ‘low fat’, ‘reduced salt’ or ‘good source of fibre’. Nutrition content claims are claims about the content of a certain nutrient in a food, so they can be helpful when shopping for products that are lower or higher in a specific nutrient. The product has to comply with criteria set out in Standard 1.2.7 of the Food Standard Code to be permitted to carry a nutrient claim.

However just because a food is ‘high’ or ‘low’ in a certain nutrient, that doesn’t automatically make it healthy.  It’s important to look at the whole product, for example, marshmallows may have a ‘low in fat’ claim which may be true, however they are very high in sugar and low in other nutrients that our bodies need so not a healthy option.

Other claims

Some products have claims such as ‘no added colours’, ‘no nasties’, ‘sugar free’.  These aren’t regulated and are there for marketing purposes to lead you to think they are healthy when may may not necessarily be. When in doubt, check the ingredients list and NIP.

The Food Switch app is a handy tool when shopping. This handy app allows you to scan the bar code on a product and it will suggest a healthier product to ‘switch’ to.

For more ideas on healthy shopping, check out our blog 10 things you should know before you go shopping.

For more information on label reading see the Eat for Health website.

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Some images on this site have been supplied by Cancer Council Western Australia's Crunch & Sip website