Understanding What Food Labels Mean

Reading labels on packaged foods can be tricky. Here are a few tips to help you decipher what's good for you and what's not.

Claims

Companies can make health claims and nutrient claims on food packages. A health claim is a food label message. This message defines the relationship between a nutrient — such as fat, calcium, or fiber — and a disease — such as cancer or heart disease. A health claim on a package may read as follows:

• "While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease."

• "Lowfat diets rich in fruits and vegetables (foods that are low in fat and may contain dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C) may reduce risk for some types of cancer, a disease associated with many factors. Broccoli is high in vitamins A and C and is a good source of dietary fiber."

Nutrient claims usually include the words free or reduced/less. These claims can refer to calories, fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sodium (which can also be called very low). Sugar can be associated with only the words free or reduced/less.

When reduced fat means high fat

Knowing what front label terms mean is important. The word lowfat can't be used indiscriminately on a food label — by government definition, it means that a product contains 3 grams or less of total fat per labeled serving and per RACC, or Reference Amount Customarily Consumed (serving sizes vary depending upon the product).

To qualify as reduced fat, a product must contain 25 percent less fat than the food it's being compared to. For example, if a regular Jones's Old Fashioned Bran Muffin has 20 grams of fat, the "Reduced Fat" version can contain no more than 15 grams of fat. But lowering the fat content of one muffin from an incredibly high fat 20 grams to 15 grams doesn't mean much. The product is still high in fat, although "Reduced Fat" legally appears right on the front of the package. This labeling can be confusing.

The term reduced fat is the most misleading item on the label. Many people misinterpret it to mean that the product is low in fat when it may not be and often isn't. Look at the label for a concrete number of fat grams per serving. The amount of fat removed is a percentage of the amount of fat that was originally in the product, not a number you can use to determine how much fat the food contains.

What other front label words mean

The word low may be used on foods that meet government guidelines. Table 1 defines other label words as they apply per serving of food.

Table 1: Definitions of Label Terms

Term	Definition (Based on Labeled Serving and RACC)
Lowfat	3 grams or less total fat
Low saturated fat	1 gram or less saturated fat and 15 percent or less calories from saturated fat
Low sodium	140 milligrams or less sodium
Low cholesterol	20 milligrams or less cholesterol and 2 grams or less saturated fat
Low calorie	40 calories or less
Lean	Less than 10 grams fat, less than 4.5 grams saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams cholesterol (describes meat, game meat, poultry, and seafood only)
Extra lean	Less than 5 grams fat, less than 2 grams saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams cholesterol (describes meat, game meat, poultry, and seafood only)

Sugar by any other name . . .

Sugar is often listed in the ingredient lists of baked goods in several ways, which can be deceiving. Molasses, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, fructose, glucose, sucrose, and fruit concentrate (fructose) are all forms of sugar. When combinations of these ingredients are present in products, the total amount of sugar can be substantial. You may not want that much sugar, so read ingredient lists carefully.

Fat

Fat can also be listed several ways. Hydrogenated safflower oil, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, palm oil, canola oil, walnut oil, grapeseed oil, almond oil, tallow, suet, margarine, butter, and lard are forms of fat, and others exist, too. Fat has more calories than any other food, so it pays to keep an eye out for fats in the ingredient list.