A food label is a legal document wearing a marketing costume. The front of the pack is advertising; the back is evidence — if you know where to look. These six checks take about twenty seconds per product and catch most of the tricks.
1. The serving size (the master trick)
Every number on the panel is per serving, and the manufacturer chooses the serving. A muffin ‘serving’ may be half a muffin; a drink bottle may claim two servings nobody has ever split. Before comparing calories or sugar, check the servings per pack and multiply honestly. Better still, compare products by their per-100 g column, where serving games disappear.
2. Sugar — in all its names
Sugar hides behind dozens of names: sucrose, glucose syrup, fructose, honey, agave, maltodextrin, fruit juice concentrate, dextrose, molasses. Splitting sugar into several types lets each one rank lower in the ingredients list. A practical threshold used on front-of-pack systems: more than about 15 g of sugar per 100 g is a high-sugar food; under 5 g is low. In the ingredients, anything ending in ‘-ose’ or called a syrup is sugar doing the same job.
3. Salt (and its alter ego, sodium)
Labels may list sodium instead of salt; multiply sodium by 2.5 to get salt. Above 1.5 g of salt per 100 g is high — and bread, sauces and processed meats deliver more of the average person’s salt than snacks do. Daily guidance sits around 5–6 g of salt total, a ceiling many packaged staples quietly approach on their own.
4. Fibre — the underrated positive
Fibre is the number worth maximising: it blunts glucose rises, feeds gut microbes and predicts satiety. Above 6 g per 100 g qualifies as high-fibre in labelling rules; many breakfast cereals boasting health halos carry less fibre than plain oats. When two similar products compete, the fibre column is often the honest tiebreaker.
5. Protein per calorie
Protein claims (‘with added protein!’) often hide a poor trade: a bar with 10 g of protein and 250 kcal is mostly energy, not protein. A quick mental ratio — grams of protein per 100 kcal — separates genuinely protein-rich foods (Greek yogurt, eggs, chicken: roughly 8–15 g) from decorated snacks (often 3–5 g).
6. The ingredients list order
Ingredients are listed by weight, descending. If sugar, syrup or oil appears in the first three of a product sold as wholesome, believe the list, not the box art. Short lists are not automatically healthier, but long lists of additives signal an ultra-processed product — a pattern associated in cohort studies with worse health outcomes.
Bottom line: serving size first, then sugar, salt and fibre per 100 g, protein per calorie, and the first three ingredients. Twenty seconds, six numbers — and the front of the pack loses most of its power over you.
