1. What food labels are about and how do I make healthier choices?
The Truth About Labels
What food labels are about and how do I make healthier choices?
This presentation and activity can be used as a resource to assist teachers with interpreting food labels or used in the classroom as an activity to read food labels.
You will need packaged food labels to practice reading labels.
Try obtain the follow labels;
Cereal boxes
Yoghurt tubs
Similar snack packaging
Frozen meals
Chips / crisps
Juice boxes / carton or range of drinks.
For Teachers:
Interpreting food labels can be incorporated into the classroom via activities involving reading food labels and determining healthier options, making food choices for recipe adaptation or as an excursion to the supermarket when students can have a hands on approach to reading labels. It is a life skill that will assist with literacy, numeracy, critical and creative thinking by solving problems and interpreting the data.
Links to the Australian Curriculum
Healthy eating is evident in the lower school curriculum. Year 7’s cover characteristics and properties of food to determine a health solution. This is followed through in year 8 advancing to sensory aspects. It then becomes more complex in year 9 and 10 as the curriculum covers the principles of the food supply influencing the creation of food solution for healthy eating. Reading labels is incorporated into healthy eating topics.
The Year 11 curriculum links to label reading topic directly in unit 1 and 2 of the general syllabus. The syllabus covers:
Nutrition information panel
Percentage labelling
Name and/or description of the food
Information for allergy sufferers
Date marking
Ingredients list
Country of origin
There are several other links to the curriculum within the Year 11 syllabus for example under nutrition section for food sources. There are other links covering Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, processing food and nature of food covering packaging. See the syllabus for links.
For Label Reading Activity:
Intro:
Food plays an important role in everyday life. We are bombarded with health suggestions and health claims suggesting to make healthy choices. How do we make healthy choices when choosing our food when we don’t have the knowledge of a Dietitian or Food Scientist?
Reading food labels can be a simple task to assist with making healthy choices. We can apply this to our shopping trip at the supermarket and be well on our way to better health. There are hundreds of food labels on the market all filled with information. How do we interpret what is right and which claims to believe? Knowing how to interpret the label can be a powerful tool to make healthier choices. These choices can impact our health for our lifetime.
Companies and food manufactures in Australia and New Zealand are governed Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. These standards are legislative instruments under the Legislation Act They have recently been revised and effective from March There are 12 standards on labeling.

2. Food Labels How to read a food label
The first step in reading a food label is looking at the Nutrition Information Panel or NIP
This table will provide a snapshot of the contents of the product
The NIP is a good tool to compare products and allow you to make healthier choices
Understanding food labels
Firstly what is on a label? There are multiple informational points on a label that need interpreting. There is the Nutrition Information Panel or NIP for short. This table contains all the important information you will need to interpret. The NIP provides a snapshot of the food in terms of macro and micronutrients. The NIP displays per serve column and per 100g or 100ml column. When comparing foods against each other always use per 100g or mls column. This also tells you the portion of macronutrients or micronutrient as a percentage of the product.
The NIP will always have the following:
Energy
Protein
Fat – Total and Saturated
Total Carbohydrate – total sugars
Sodium (salt)
Dietary fibre
Hand out the labels so the students can find the NIP and analysis the label.

3. NIP
Things to focus on:
Per 100g / ml column – provides percentage of nutrient type and easy comparison
Fat
Sugar
Sodium
Hand out the labels so the students can find the NIP and analysis the label.
Take a look at the NIP on the examples of labels.
Things we focus on when interpreting the NIP are:
Per 100g or mls column
Total Fat content
Total sugar content
And Sodium (or salt) content

4. Other items on the label
The ingredients list:
listed from most to least ingredients. The first three ingredient can give you an indicator of what the product is made of.
Allergen:
Product must state if any allergens are detectable or there are traces of an allergen
Country of Origin:
Must be stated. ‘Made in Australia’ label can only be stated for all ingredients and processing completed in Australia
Other items on the label
Ingredient List
By law the ingredients are labelled from most to least in the product. This gives you a good indicator as to what ingredients are used most in the product and you can make a decision on whether that product is a good choice.
Allergies
The label must contain information about allergens and whether the product may contain traces of an allergen. This is the same for products processed on the same manufacturing line as allergen containing foods. Food additives also need to be stated, usually in the ingredient list as a number code. This allows those people that may be sensitive to some food additives, are clearly identify if the product contains them.
Country of Origin
The label must state where the product was made, produced or ingredients sourced from. Australia has strict laws about stating Australian made. This means the product must have all the ingredients and processing completed in Australia to obtain this label.
Other items to discus if time permits. (Can use white board or butchers paper to write the headings on board so students can recall these items when interpreting the labels).
Name and description of the product
By law the product must state what is it. For example if the yoghurt says fruit yoghurt it must contain fruit and not fruit flavouring. Otherwise it would be fruit flavoured yoghurt. The label must tell the truth. It can not contain an item if its not listed.
Direction of use and storage
If the product requires specific conditions in order for the product to keep until the best before or used by date it needs to be stated. For example if you see keep refrigerated after opening this indicates the product needs to be kept under 5°C to meet food safety standards.
Health Star Rating
This has been introduced as a government led initiative that scores the nutritional value of packaged food. The product is scored against the percentage based on Daily Intake (DI). The DI value is based on an average adult requirement. The more stars a product has the healthier it is deemed.
Exemptions From Food Labels
There are some foods, which are exempt from the labelling laws.
These foods are;
Fresh produce,
Food that is made for fair or market stall food,
Food packaging with only one or very few ingredients such as tea, coffee, herbs and spices,
Foods from fast food, café or restaurant and anything made to order,
Foods that have a very small packaging like chewing gum.

5. Nutrition and Health Claims
Nutrition Claims:
Claim may state the content of a nutrient and the role in the body
Product needs to meet criteria
Health Claims:
Describe relationship between nutrient and health benefit
Needs to meet the FSANZ Standards – See Website
Nutritional Content Claims
Some products make nutritional claims on the label. There are criteria’s the product needs to meet in order to make the claim. For example ‘a good source of Calcium’ needs to meet a certain level of calcium in the product in order to make this claim.
Health claims
These link a particular food or type of food to a health effect. There are two types of health claims
General health claims: refers to nutrient or substance in a food linked to a health effect. For example calcium is good for bones
High level health claim: refers to a nutrient or substance and its relationship linked to disease or biomarker. For example ‘diets high in calcium reduce the risk of osteoporosis’.
Both these claims need to comply with the Food Standards code – see FSANZ website for more details on the code.
Below Is a list of other claims that can be discussed if time permits. (When interpreting the label students may like to state the claim they found on a label and discuss this further with the class).
Lite or Light: Doesn’t always mean low in kilojoules.
Cholesterol Free or No Cholesterol: Does not mean no fat. Non animal products can contain fat but not cholesterol. Cholesterol is derived from animal fat.
97% fat free: Food contains 3% fat.
Reduced fat: Foods contain less fat than the original product.
Baked not fried: Indicates foods are lower in fat as they have not been cooked in fat. You need to check the NIP.
Fresh: Food hasn’t undergone any form of preservation.
Natural: Impression the food is superior. Only states foods are as close to natural as they exist.
No MSG: Can be misleading as some natural occurring glutamates present in food.
No Added MSG: MSG not added to foods.
No artificial colours or flavours: Sometimes misleading as natural colours and flavours can be present in foods. No artificial colours or flavours have been added.
No preservatives: No chemical preservatives added although other methods of preservation may have been used i.e. Vacuum-sealing or pasteurisation.
No added chemicals: Food is a chemical. This translates to no artificial colours or flavours.
Reduce salt: Contains less than 25% salt than original product
No added sugar: Foods have no additional sugar added to manufacturing.
High in fibre: Foods must contain at least 3g of fibre per serve.
High protein: Foods contain at least 5g of protein per serve or 12% kilojoules from protein source.
Gluten-free: Means no foods with detectable traces of gluten.

6. Used By Date Vs. Best Before Dates
Foods that are perishable and can not be consumed.
Best Before Date:
Foods that can be kept longer than this date. The nutrient value may have decreased after this date.
Use by date or best before
A product must have one of these.
Use by date is the product needs to be consumed before this date. The product can no longer be used for safety reasons after this date.
Best before date means the product can still be used before this date but the nutritional value of this food may have decreased in value therefore the product may not provide the full amount of benefit it claims to.

7. Choosing Best Food for Health
Reading labels and comparing foods with the knowledge of interpreting the label can assist choosing healthier options.
Golden Rules for Food Labels
1) Check the fat content
Aim for less than 10g per 100g
2) Check sugar content
3) Check the ingredients list
Which ingredient is listed in the first three
Reading labels and comparing foods with the knowledge of interpreting the label can assist choosing healthier options.
A few simple golden rules to follow when we are comparing product. Remember to always compare products with the per 100g or mls column.
Golden Rules for Food Labels
Check the fat content
Aim for less than 10g per 100g.
2) Check sugar content
Aim for less than 10g per 100g (aim for less than 15g per 100g for fruit containing foods).
3) Check the ingredients list
Which ingredient is listed in the first three?

8. Lets Read Some Labels
Lets compare some food labels and interpret the information you find on the label Discussion on food labels Any Questions?
Now get the students to interpret the information on the labels.
Ensure they can identify the NIP, compare products with each to determine which one is a healthier option. Let the students make choices between the labels and justify why they made that choice.
Have a discussion with class on the claims there may be on the labels.