Food labels must inform the consumer, but also may add or not specific claims

Before start, food labels can contain nutrition facts or claims of three types:

1) Health claims.- Sometimes are allowed by the FDA or the local health organism of each country, claims linking constituents with disease states.

2) Nutrient claims.- With appropiate words, they may describe the values of them such as "high in" or "low in".

3) Nutrition facts.- Almost all packages must contain a panel giving information of the contents and the percentages or amounts of them. This can also apply for fresh goods.

I don't know if you have struggled reading the information in boxes, cans, packages, etc. and had trouble understanding it and furthermore wondering how to use it for nutritional advantage. You're about to find out some good tips and information, keep reading.

What food labels must include

According to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, the requirements are:

1) To show the common or usual name of the product.

2) Must have the name and address of the manufacturer, packer or distributor.

3) The net contents in terms of weight, measure or count.

4) The nutrient contents of the product.

5) The list of ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight.

6) Not every package needs to display information about every vitamin and mineral.

Check out that the size of the package makes a difference, because according to the space available are the requirements of information.

Now, let's make a journey through a label content:

1) Serving size.- You will see it with common household and metric measures such as: a cup, a tablespoon, or 250 ml, equivalent to a single serving. For each serving, a certain amount of nutrients is reported. If you eat 3 portions, then, you get three times the amount informed.

2) Servings per container.- Number of servings per package, box, can, etc.

3) Calories / calories from fat.- Total food energy per serving and from fat per serving.

4) Nutrient amounts and percentages of daily values.- Gives you:

+ Total fat (grams of fat per serving, also advertises about how many come from saturated fats).

+ Cholesterol (mgs of cholesterol per serving).

+ Sodium (mgs of sodium per serving).

+ Total carbohydrate (grams of carbohydrate per serving, including starch, fiber, and sugars, which include natural or added during processing).

+ Protein (grams of protein per serving).

In addition, the label must state the contents of vitamin A, C, Calcium and Iron, and other nutrients in significant amounts as percentages of daily values.

5) Daily values and calories per gram reminder.- This portion lists the daily values for a person needing 2000-2500 calories/ day.

6) Ingredients.- The list of them, in descending order of predominance by weight.

Learn to read the food labels and understand its power

If you learn how to read an ingredient list, you're many steps ahead from a common buyer.

Imagine the scene: You want to give juice to your child. The question is: What is better? Then, you watch for the information and see: Sugar, citric acid and mango flavor! What??

So you start wondering, mmm... Is mango flavor from real mangos or just a "mango something" with alot of chemicals? The answer seems obvious. Your conclusion: Let's go to the mangos rack and pick up some fresh ones!

But what happens when you're looking at two similar products which you just can't differentiate easily. Let's see. You go again to the label. You have a canned juice in your hand whose ingredient list begins with: Water and mango concentrate. Your eyes move from one side to the other (with a thinking expression on your face).

Water is first on the label, being the main constituent of the juice. Sugar does not appear (so it has not been added but occurs naturally in the fruit), but the information says also that the mango is from concentrate.

Conclusion? It is a reconstituted juice. Sounds less bad than the "mango something kind of juice" doesn't it? Now we're talking about the power of food labels.

What food labels may include

Some products may display certain approved claims, but they need to meet strict criteria. This can be: nutrient or health claims.

So, there are: regular foods and functional foods, as well as dietary supplements and the information stated on this products must follow strict standards of accuracy in their meaning.

The daily values are used to make easy comparisons. E.g. A food "low in cholesterol" or a "good source" of vitamin D. And it helps the consumer to choose.

E.g. If a product provides 10% or more of the daily value for a nutrient, then it is considered a "good source", but if it provides 20% then is considered "high in".

Then, health claims on labels and menus are very carefully controlled so that consumers can rely on them instead of worrying about grams, percentages, etc. But if you know what is allowed you will make more informed choices.

The following relationships may allow statements about health:

1) Calcium and osteoporosis (a food making this claim must be high in calcium).

2) Sodium and hypertension (it must be low in sodium).

3) Dietary fat and cancer (product must be low fat).

4) Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol and coronary heart disease (it must be low saturated fat, low cholesterol and low fat).

5) Fiber containing grain products, fruits, vegetables and cancer (they must be a good source of fiber).

6) Fruits, vegetables and grain products that contain fiber, especially soluble fiber and reduced risk of coronary heart disease (they have to say that are low saturated fat, low fat and low cholesterol and must contain at least 0.6 grs of soluble fiber per serving).

7) Fruits and vegetables and reduced risk of cancer (must say low fat and good source of fiber, vitamin A or C).

8) Diets high in oatmeal, oat bran or soluble fiber from psyllium seed husk and the risk of coronary heart disease (Must contain low saturated fat, low cholesterol and low fat, provide at least 13 grams of oat bran, 20 of oatmeal or 1.7 grs of soluble fiber from psyllium seed husk).

9) The vitamin folate and birth defects of the brain and spinal cord (must be a good source of vitamin folate and contain no more than 100% of the daily value for vitamin A or D).

10) Sugar alcohols and tooth decay (sugar alcohols don't promote tooth decay as high sugar foods do).

11) Soy protein and reduced risk of coronary heart disease (must contain at least 6.25 grs of soy protein/ serving, low fat, low saturated fat and low cholesterol).

12) Whole grains and reduced risk of heart disease and certain cancers (whole grain must make up more than half of the food's ingredients and must be low fat, low saturated fat and low cholesterol).

13) Potassium and reduced risk of hypertension and stroke (must be a good source of potassium and low sodium, low fat, low saturated fat and low cholesterol).

Health claims may say only that a substance "may" or "might" reduce disease risks because science is still accumulating evidence.

When choosing a food with the word healthy as part of its name, you can rely on it to live up to its claim. To qualify for this it needs to contain at least 10% of one of these: vitamin A, C, iron, calcium, protein or fiber.

Finally but very important is to notice that a serving of a healthy product may contain no more than 20% of the daily value of:

+ Total fat.

+ Saturated fat.

+ Cholesterol.

+ Sodium.

Food labels are useful to understand about key nutritional facts, visit this section for more about similar topics

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