Understanding food labels

If you’re not sure how much of a food to eat, have a look at the food label. Food labels appear on all packaged foods and drinks.

Look out for the traffic lights on food labels

Some food labels use a traffic-light system which makes it easier to choose food that is lower in fat and sugar. Choose more ’greens’ and ’ambers’ and fewer 'reds'.

Read more about food labelling on NHS Choices

Fat and sugar - high or low?

Total fat

• High: more than 20g of fat per 100g
• Low: 3g of fat or less per 100g

Saturated fat

• High: more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g
• Low: 1.5g of saturated fat or less per 100g

Sugars

• High: more than 15g of total sugars per 100g
• Low: 5g of total sugars or less per 100g

Salt and sodium

Salt is also called sodium chloride. Sometimes, food labels only give the figure for sodium. But there's a simple way to work out how much salt you're eating from the sodium figure: salt = sodium x 2.5.

• High: more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
• Low: 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)