Nearly every consumer product comes with a label explaining how it was made, where it was made and what it is. Sometimes though, the information on these labels can be a little confusing as generally speaking, most people will be unfamiliar with the terms used on them even if they've used the product itself for years. Nowhere is this more true than in food labels, where government regulations, marketing and manufacturing terms all combine to deliver a bewildering amount of information that can be a little confusing to the average consumer.
With this in mind, here is a brief guide of some of the terms used in food labels so that you can make an informed choice when it comes to your grocery shopping:
Allergen labeling
All pre-packaged food - including alcoholic drinks - are required to list certain ingredients on their labels if they contain them. This is because these ingredients could cause an allergic reaction to many people. In the EU,
labels must display whether or not they contain any of the following 14 ingredients: Celery; gluten cereals; crustaceans (shellfish); eggs; fish; lupin; milk; molluscs' mustard; nuts; peanuts; sesame seeds; soybeans; and sulphur dioxide or sulphites at a concentration about 10mg per kg/litre.
Some ingredients that people could be allergic to in their base form won't be listed on the ingredients though. This is because by the time they get into the final product, they're so highly processed that they're no longer able to cause allergic reactions - for example, glucose syrups made from wheat or barley. Also, when something says "May contain..." it means that though the ingredient isn't deliberately apart of the food, the manufacturer can't be sure that it doesn't contain them because of their manufacturing process.
No added sugar/Unsweetened
One of the biggest aspects of the healthy eating movement is to cut down on the consumption of sugar. "No added sugar" means that no extra sugar has been added to a product as an ingredient - it can still contain ingredients that have a naturally high sugar content, such as fruit.
This is slightly different from the "unsweetened" label. Many products use artificial sweeteners instead of sugar as an ingredient, yet to some people such sweeteners are also something to be avoided. When something is "unsweetened" neither sugar nor sweeteners have been used as an ingredient, whilst with "no added sugar" the only guarantee is that sugar hasn't been directly added by the manufacturer.
Organic
Organic food products can be found in most retail supermarkets in the UK and their
labels are an important tool for those concerned over GM-crops and pesticides to make an informed purchasing decision. Far from an abstract marketing claim, to be sold as 'organic' food products must be produced according to European laws. This means that the product must contain at least 95% organic ingredients and its ingredients must come from growers, processors and importers who are registered with official organic certification bodies.
