Whether we like it or not, a very important part of our kitchen shelves today is packaged foods. With our busy schedules we do like to stack up on handy stuff like – ketchups, dips, sandwich spreads, ‘healthy’ fruit juices, fruit based drinks, instant noodles, instant pastas, fried & baked chips, flavoured ‘protein rich’ yoghurts, flavoured milk, lassi, frozen foods,  salad dressings, ready vegetable gravies, instant soups, biscuits etc etc etc.. The list is never ending..

In an ideal scenario we must not be having these in our kitchen shelves! “IDEALLY!!”

Now, let’s get the truth out that- we cannot avoid these totally how much ever we want, so let’s make better choices, if not the best… The first step for better choices in packed foods is reading the food labels..  You might do a favor on your body (& pockets) if you not just buy these food products based on the claims/ ads but turn around the pack and  READ…the information behind..

The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has made it mandatory for every food product to have nutrition information label along with ingredients, nutrients info, best before date, grammage and some other important details yet unfortunately we have many who do not adhere to it but gradually we are noticing a change. Locally made products from home /cottage industries may not have labels, like those chivda, cakes and khakhra packs found in local shops. Try to avoid these wherever you can (those without labels) as they do not guarantee whatever is inside that pack and don’t provide you vital information to make healthier choices.

This is especially important for all those who are making efforts to eat healthy by buying so called “ diet foods”/ “ roasted foods “/ “ sugar free sweets” / “oat biscuits”/ “brown breads” etc

There is quite some information to share on decoding the labels, let’s start with basics of a food label which you MUST see in part I of the series. Do refer to the pictures of few actual products to understand better.

1. ORDER OF INGREDIENTS – It’s a rule that the list of ingredients is always in descending order i.e. the ingredient mentioned first is in the highest proportion in that food.  An ingredient which features in the bottom of the list is least.

e.g 1. Natural Fruit based drinks squash:

We assume major portion should obviously be fruit pulp….Please turn over….Most probably it will be water, sugar, fruit concentrate/pulp (%), permitted natural & synthetic colours and flavours etc!! That means in that beverage (red label), sugar is highest followed by water, then some amount of fruit pulp and other stuff. And there you were! Thinking you are having such a fresh ‘real’ 100% fruit beverage… So if fruit pulp is say 20% then 100ml of that beverage contains only 20g /20 ml is fruit pulp.  (BTW just look at per serve sugar content…its more than a day’s allowance!!)

e.g 2. Digestive Biscuits:

Refined Wheat flour (43%), Whole wheat flour (20%), Edible vegetable oil, Sugar, Wheat Bran ( 4.3%), Milk Solids, Liquid Glucose, Cereal Products, Raising agents, emulsifiers, common salt, malt extract, Dough conditioners.

Which shows that maida is highest, followed by whole wheat flour, oil and sugar in descending order.

2. PROPORTION AND RATIOS OF INGREDIENTS  – Of course the sequence tells you a lot about the proportion of ingredients but if looking for a specific ingredient highlighted, look at the exact amount. And do not stop at first 2-3, go on till the end. Sometimes an ad may claim something for the product, technically the company is not wrong, but u need to be smart as you are shelling your hard earned money to buy the product for some additional feature.

e.g. 1. Multi grain atta – (all brands charge more for these)

Turn over… you may see wheat flour, corn, soy, oats, nachni etc.. Please see the percentage of each. Like in this atta pack, wheat  is 90 %, rest grains all together just 10% That means technically it is multi grain, but really is it health beneficial than the regular at that 1-2% that too high priced?   You rather add 1 cup oats to your paratha atta at home/  Add Ragi/Nachni flour to your dosa flour  Or make each day a different grain day at home…

e.g. 2. Oat Biscuits

Many brands do portray oat biscuits to be healthier than normal as adding oats increases fibre. So make it a point to check on the proportion of oats to wheat flour/ maida. Like n the above oat biscuit, maida (wheat flour ) is 61%, oats is just mere 1.5%. rest oils, sugars, flavours agents etc 10-20% which still makes it a very very unhealthy choice and fats and sugar will definitely add on to the negatives.

Understand that 1.5% means in 100g of the product only ‘1.5’ grams of that ingredient is present.

3. NUTRITIONAL VALUE TABLE: Now this table can be in different formats depending on the source/ company/ product. Most of the times it gives the energy, carbohydrate, proteins, fats and other vitamins/minerals/fibre content in that particular food. The FSSAI is coming up with few mandates for this too.

a. Serving : Always make a habit to check the values given are for what amount. Ideally it should give values for 100g (that’s a standard measure) of product as well as for 1 serving of the product.

(1 Serving is the ideal recommended amount to be consumed at one time by a person of intended age group)

A packet of chips you buy may be of 200grams, but 1 serving for a healthy adult may be just 15-20grams, so values must be given for 100g as well as 15g Or a bar of chocolate may be 60g but serving size may be 10g, whereas serving size for an energy nutri bar may be 30g.

e.g. 1 Potato Chips. The pack is of 50g, but values given are for 100g. so if protein is for example 4g; one assumes  4g protein in that pack, but actually you get only half as you are having 50g pack and if you have 1 serving as ideal then it will be even lesser.

Opposite may also be true where you end up having double of a nutrient.

Like this chips pack was 177g values are given for 100g, we assume that’s what we are consuming, forgetting that the pack is of larger quantity, so we’re eating almost double the calories = > 1000Kcal from super saver chips pack etc.

e.g. 2. Ready to drink flavoured milk tetra pack

A common quantity is 200ml pack; but values are given for 100ml.. So say sugar is 8g. One assumes “oh  8g sugar in this pack” forgetting that the pack is 200ml thus you consume 16g of refined sugar straight out of that tetra pack (refer pic).

b. % Daly Value: Another aspect of nutrition value table may be % Daily Values (%DV). We all know that there are recommended allowances for most nutrients or all age groups. Recommended amounts are developed country/region specific. These DV values tell us that if you consume that product in mentioned amounts then how much of your daily requirement of a particular nutrient is fulfilled. There are normally based on a 2000-kcal diet.

E.g if %DV of fats is 25; it indicates it’s a high fat food, 25% daily fat requirement of a reference adults is fulfilled when that food is consumed. It’s a good way to judge if a packaged food is high/ low in a particular ingredient. In a normal scenario you want lower % DV for calories, fats, sugars and higher for all vitamins & minerals. Generally if %DV is <5% its low, > 15-20% is good source of that nutrient.

Just a quick summary for nutrient table.-50px

Image source:kindwellbeing.com

4. FSSAI Mark & Other Logos

In India, currently the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the body that regulates food manufacturing, processing, packaging and selling. Every food business operator; whether small medium or big needs to be registered with FSSAI. Thus every packaged food must have the manufacturers/ repackers FSSAI registration/ license number. It is sort of an assurance of all the claims made on pack. At times there are 2 FSSAI numbers of manufacturer and packer/ seller are different. Fortified foods & organic certified foods should have a separate logo to indicate the same.

5. Best Before/ Expiry date

The ‘best before’ date is often mistaken by consumers to be the same as the ‘expiry date’. There is a difference in both these terms though they indicate similar things. Expiration dates tell consumers the last day a product is safe to consume. Best before date on the other hand tells you that the food is no longer in its perfect shape from that date. It may just lose its freshness, taste, aroma or nutrients. It does not necessarily mean that the food is no longer safe to eat. Best before date is basically a quality indicator. Expiry date indicates food is no longer safe to consume post that.

6. Green/ Red dot in a box

As known my most, a food pack must bear a green dot in a box to indicate 100% vegetarian ingredients and a red dot in a box to indicate usage of ingredients from animal sources including gelatin.

7. MRP/BATCH NO/ Quantity/ Customer Care/Storage or cooking information.

These are some other details on packaged foods which come secondary in making healthy food choices.

So to be able to read food labels requires an in detail study. Lets start paying attention to these basics of a packed food label for making more informed choices. More details coming up in part II

To be continued in next post …