Reading food labels: traffic lights, ingredients and dates

Two minutes with a label tells you whether a product is a good choice, whether it fits your diet and how long it is safe to keep. This lesson focuses on using labels while you shop and store food; the Nutrition and a Healthy Body module covers nutrients in more depth.

Traffic-light labels

• Many UK packs have a front-of-pack label coloured red (high), amber (medium) or green (low) for fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt.
• The NHS says a product that is mostly green is generally the healthier choice, and any red means it is high in that nutrient, so have it less often or in smaller amounts.
• Use traffic lights to compare similar products, for example two pasta sauces or two breakfast cereals, not to compare a sauce with a cereal.
• Not every country uses traffic lights. If there is no front label, use the per 100 g column in the nutrition table instead.

Reading the per 100 g numbers yourself

• NHS thresholds per 100 g of food: total fat is high above 17.5 g and low at 3 g or less.
• Saturated fat is high above 5 g and low at 1.5 g or less per 100 g.
• Sugars are high above 22.5 g and low at 5 g or less per 100 g.
• Salt is high above 1.5 g (0.6 g sodium) and low at 0.3 g or less (0.1 g sodium) per 100 g. Drinks use different criteria.
• Worked example: Sauce A has 1.6 g salt per 100 g (high). Sauce B has 0.8 g (medium). If you use about 125 g of sauce on your pasta, A gives you 2.0 g of salt and B gives 1.0 g.

The ingredients list

• Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, so the first few make up most of the product. If cream, butter or oil are near the top, it is likely to be high in fat (NHS).
• This is also where you check for things your diet excludes, such as gelatine of unknown origin or alcohol-based flavourings and sauces (see the halal lesson).
• If you have a food allergy, read the full ingredients list every time you buy, even for products you know, because recipes change.
• Compare a 'tomato and basil' sauce where tomatoes come first with one where water or sugar comes first: the first is usually the better buy.

Use-by versus best before

• GOV.UK (FSA guidance): use-by dates are about safety; best before dates are about quality.
• Do not eat food after its use-by date, even if it looks and smells fine. Love Food Hate Waste: you must not eat food past the use-by date.
• After the best before date, food is usually still safe but may not be at its best. Use your senses: look, smell and taste carefully (milk turning sour or lumpy, crisps going stale).
• Hen's eggs carry a best before date by regulation. The FSA's home food fact checker says eggs are safe for a couple of days after it if they are cooked well.
• 'Display until' and 'sell by' dates are for shop staff, not for you at home (Love Food Hate Waste).

Storage and 'once opened' instructions

• Read the storage line on every new product. If it says to refrigerate after opening, keep it at 5°C or below (GOV.UK).
• Many jars and sauces say 'use within 3 days of opening' or similar. Write the opening date on the lid with a marker.
• You can eat food after its use-by date only if it was cooked or frozen on or before that date (GOV.UK). Label frozen food with what it is and the date.
• Once frozen food has defrosted, use it within 24 hours (GOV.UK).