Your easy guide to reading and understanding food labels

Browsing the supermarket aisles in search of healthy foods can be confusing; There are stars, information panels, health claims, and many other things to consider.

So we’ve created this guide to food labels to help you make healthy and informed choices when you’re at the supermarket.

Health Star Rating

You’ve probably seen these on a range of foods, from cereals to yoghurts. The system rates the overall nutrition profile of packaged food and rates it from ½ a star to five stars, with the more stars representing the healthier option.

The Health Star Rating is calculated using:

• Energy (kilojoules).
• Nutrients to limit – saturated fat, sodium (salt) and sugars.
• Positive nutrients – dietary fibre, protein and fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content.

Because Health Star Ratings are designed to judge similar food products, comparing different kinds of foods will not give accurate results. For example, the star rating on a yoghurt does not represent how healthy it is compared to a packet of lollies or breakfast cereal, only compared to other yoghurts or similar dairy products.

There is also no Health Star Rating on fresh foods like fruit and vegetables, which should be eaten every day for good health.

Pros of health star ratings:

• It’s visual – easy on the eye
• Compares similar packaged food products
• Considers energy (kilojoules), nutrients to limit (saturated fat, salt, and sugar) and positive nutrients (fibre, protein and fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content)
• It has been developed by government

Cons of health star ratings:

• Voluntary for food manufacturers to display – just because it doesn’t have stars doesn’t mean it’s not a healthier option
• You can’t compare different types of foods e.g. a yoghurt product can’t be compared to breakfast cereal, only to other yoghurts
• The rating is designed for packaged food so remember to fill your trolley with fresh foods, such as fruit and vegetables

Tips:

• Use the Health Star Rating to compare similar food products
• Remember, a healthy balanced diet consists mainly of minimally processed food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat, nuts, seeds, legumes and water
• Use the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating for information about the amounts and kinds of food to eat for good health
• Limit the amount of packaged food in your trolley and pantry

Nutrition information panel

Found on food packets, this displays the amount per 100g (or 100mL if liquid) and per serve of energy (kilojoules), protein, total fat, saturated fat, total carbohydrate, sugar and sodium (salt) in the food. Some panels also display other nutrients such as fibre or calcium.

Look for snacks that have less than 600kJ of energy per serve and products with over 3g of fibre per serve.

The below table provides our recommendations for the best options to look out for when it comes to saturated fat, sugar and sodium

	Best options	Better options
Saturated fat	<1.5g per 100g	<3 g per 100g
Sugar	<5g per 100g	<15g per 100g
Sodium	<120mg per 100g	<400mg per 100g

Pros of the nutrition information panel:

• Mandatory for food manufacturers to display- you’ll find it on all foods!
• Helps you compare food products by looking at the 100g column and choosing alternatives low in saturated fat, sugar and sodium

Cons of the nutrition information panel:

• It takes time to read
• Serving sizes vary, therefore different serving sizes may be listed for example,a 200g tub of yoghurt may list a serving size of 100g, but most consumers would consider the whole 200g tub a standard serve

Tips:

• Use the 100g/100mL column when comparing products

Ingredients list

Theselist ingredients in order from the highest weight to the lowest weight.

Pros of ingredients lists:

• Mandatory for food manufacturers to display- you’ll find it on all foods!
• Useful for looking for sources of added fat, sugar, salt and potential allergens
• If the product name or picture on the front includes an ingredient e.g. “strawberry” yoghurt then the percentage of that ingredient must be listed

Cons of ingredients lists:

• Many other names may be used for fat, sugar and salt, e.g. shortening for fat, syrup for sugar and stock for salt – this can be deceiving

Tips:

• Avoid products that list sugar, fat or salt in the top three ingredients as the food will contain a high proportion of this ingredient
• Choose products with less ingredients as they are usually less processed

Nutrition content and health claims

Labels often include nutrition content claims such as “high fibre” or “low fat” and health claims such as “calcium for healthy bones and teeth”.

Pros of nutrition content and health claims:

• Nutrition content claims are only allowed on a product when the product contains that amount of nutrient
• Health claims are not allowedon foods high in saturated fat, sugars or salt

Cons of nutrition content and health claims:

• Claims about the nutrient content can be made on unhealthy products
• Claims may not tell the whole story e.g. products with “low fat” claims could still be high in energy (kilojoules), sugars or salts

Tips:

• Read claims on food carefully and along with the Health Star Rating, the ingredients list and the nutrition information panel.
• Watch out for labelling tricks. E.g. “light” or “lite” doesn’t necessarily mean low kilojoule or low fat – it may just be light in colour, taste or texture and “no added salt” just means that salt was not added but there could still be salt in the product from the ingredients used.

Why we care about food labelling

Maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and being active can lower your cancer risk. So enjoying a healthy diet is key. Food labels can be confusing, but they carry important information to help consumers when shopping.

For detailed information about reading and understanding food labels visit the Food Standards website.