There is a wealth of information on the labels of food products. This information in presented in a standarized format consistant throughout the industry.
Food product label
Paper and pencil
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By answering the questions and following the links the variety of information on a food product label can be investigated. The answers to the illustrated panels are in red.
Find the name of the food product. Write down the complete name.
Lady Lee CINNAMON GRAHAM CRACKERS 1 lb package
Find the name of the manufacturer. Write its name down beside the words "made by".
Made by Lady Lee
Find the "net weight" of the package. Write this down beside the words "net weight".
Net weight 16 oz (1lb) 453 g
Locate the list of ingredients. Count them (count ingredients inside the parentheses, too). How many ingredients were there? Write this number down next to the word "ingredients"
23 Ingredients
The ingredients are listed with the item there is most of first and the least of last.
Find how many times sugar is listed (all words that end in -ose--dextrose, maltose, fructose, etc.--plus corn syrup and any phrase with "sugar". Remember that honey and molasses are primarily sugar.) Write down all the different ways sugar was listed.
sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, honey, molasses
By listing sugar in several different forms sometimes a manufacturer can avoid listing sugar as the primary ingredient. Even though there may be more sugar in the product than any other ingredient, individually brown sugar, corn syrup or honey is not the principal ingredient.
Was there any salt? Write down "salt" or "no salt" based on your observations.
salt
Most products contain both salt and sugar.
Write down any words in the ingredients list that your didn't know what meant. Are you happy eating foods you can't pronounce?
thiamine mononitrate, soy lecithin
For more information on food additives click here . Scroll to the bottom of that page to find examples of additives and the foods where they are common used.
Find the "Nutrition Facts" panel. Write down the "percent daily value" of total fat, sat fat, sodium and dietary fiber for a 2000 calorie diet (this is at the bottom of the nutrition facts box.) This information is identical on all packages.
The label also lists the daily values for a 2500 calorie diet. Very active people such as athletes may require even more--up to 5000 calories or more! However, the same rules apply to everyone. If you eat more calories than you expend you gain weight!
How many servings are there in your package? Write the number next to the word "servings". Write down the serving size if there is more than one serving in the package. Would you really expect to get that many servings out of the package? How many serving do you think you really should get?
17 servings of 2 whole crackers
I usually would eat more than two crackers. I probably wouldn't get more than 6-7 servings per package. I would need to multiply the nutritional information by the number of 2 cracker serving I actually eat.
Using the Nutrition Facts panel and the chart below to determine whether the food is "nutritious" or not. It is nutritious if it gives you enough fiber without having too much fat, saturated fat or sodium. Compare the number you calculate next to the and the numbers next to the in the chart. The more the fat and sodium are below the calorie number the better the food. The higher the fiber is above the percent calories the better.
Calories per serving : 130
Divide by 20: 6.5
This calcualtion gives you the percent of daily requirements of calories in a serving of your food.
One serving of graham cracker will give me 6.5% of my daily requirements of calories.
Write down the values of % of daily values from the label into the boxes below.
total fat % daily values
8%
should be equal or less too high
saturated fat % daily values
5%
should be equal or less good
sodium % daily values
4%
fiber % daily values
3%
should be equal or higher not enough
Compare the number calculated at the to the numbers you wrote in the second column in the chart. Compared to the % of daily values of calories, less is good for fat, sat fat, and sodium. More is good for fiber. The further away these numbers are from the calorie number the better or worse they are. Determine overall whether you would consider the food "nutritious" based on this information.
Even though the total fat is a bit high, the saturated fat (the really bad stuff) is low,and there is not too much salt. However, there really isn't enough fiber. As a snack food it is better than a lot of things.
It used to be that any manufacturer could claim its product was light or low calorie without having to meet any standard. Sometimes "light" was even used to refer to the COLOR of the product. Then the Food and Drug Administration stepped in and set standards for certain words.
Reduced Fat: Has at least 25 percent less fat per serving than the full-fat product.
Light or "lite": Has at least 50 percent less fat per serving than the full-fat product.
Low-fat: Will have three grams of fat or less per serving.
Fat-free or nonfat: Conains less than one-half gram per serving.
By Dorothy Leighty-Parks