Food labelling Flashcards
What are legal requirements for labelling?
- Allergens (14)
- Best before date/ used by date
- Calories
- Nutritional information (macronutrient, salt)
- Weight
- Ingredients list
- Country/ origin of place
- Instruction for use
- Alcohol strength if has more than 1.2%
- Quantity of certain ingredients or categories of ingredients
- Storage
- Nutritional declaration
- Name or business name
What might manufacturers put on a food label voluntarily?
- Vegetarian/ vegan
- Gluten free
- Micronutrients
- No artificial additives
- 5 a day
- High ***
- Low ***
- Health claims
- Plastic free
- Serving suggestion
- Portion size
- All natural
- Energy values per serving
- Sustainability
- Marketing
What are the rules of an ingredients list?
All ingredients must be listed
The must be listed in order of weight when the food was made with main ingredient first.
Must show percentage of ingredient if highlighted by labelling or mentioned in name of product.
What are the rules for presenting allergens on food labels?
Allergens must be made clear, can be put in bold, capitals, highlighted etc
Allergy advice statement also needed
Can say ‘produced in a factory that handles nuts’ not may contain.
What are some approved health claims?
- Antioxidants, oxidative damage, and cardiovascular health
- Appetite ratings, weight management, and blood glucose concentration
- Bone, joints, skin, and oral health
- Function of nervous system, including psychological functions
- Muscle function and physical performance
- Immune system, the gastrointestinal tract and defence against pathogenic microorganisms
What is a health claim?
Any statement about a relationship between food and health. 3 main types - Function - Risk reduction - Child development Must be supported by scientific evidence
What is a nutrition claim?
Any claim which states, suggests or implies that a food has beneficial nutritional properties due to:
- The energy it a) provides b) provides at a reduced or increased rate c) does not provide
- The nutrients its a) contains b) contains in reduced or increased proportions c) does not contain
Only permitted if they’re listed in the EC Annex of Regulation or in the new GB NHC register.
What are some nutrition claims that are permitted?
- No added sugar
- Low saturated fat
- Low sodium
- Source of fibre
- High protein
- Light
- Natural
- High in omega-3 fatty acids
- Increased ‘name of nutrient’
- Low sugars
- Source of ‘nutrient name’
What is the criteria for making claims?
Increased - has to be minimum 30% increase of nutrient content in comparison to normal product
Decreased - same but 30% decrease
For micronutrients only needs to be a 10% difference - e.g fortified cereals
What are reference intakes? (RI)
Benchmarks for the amount of energy and key nutrients that can be consumed on a daily basis in order to maintain a healthy diet.
Used to be known as GDA now RI.
Only one set of RI based on 2000kcal/day
No child specific RIs
Voluntary
What are the RIs for adults?
Energy and selected nutrients?
Energy kj = 8400 Energy kcal = 2000 Total fat g = 70 Saturates g = 20 CHO g = 260 Sugars g = 90 Protein g = 50 Salt g = 6
Sodium value multiply by 2.5 to get salt.
What is included in front of pack labelling? (Voluntary)
Energy, fat, saturates, sugars and salt
Always in grams/ kcal and kj
Amount of nutrient is normally per portion
Normally % of adult RI
Combines traffic lights + RI
Colours are for values per 100g unless portion is >100g (150ml) which then red values are per portion
