Reading a Nutrition Label Without the Hype
Front-of-pack claims are marketing; the real story is on the back. A plain-English guide to serving sizes, added sugar, sodium, and the FSA traffic-light thinking behind our health scores.
"Natural." "Farm fresh." "No added MSG." The front of a package is an advertisement. The back is where the regulated, comparable facts live — and reading it takes less time than deciding between two brands.
Start with the serving size
Every number on the panel is per serving, and manufacturers choose the serving. A 55g biscuit pack can quote "per 2 biscuits (14g)" so the sugar figure looks tiny. Before you read anything else:
- Check the serving size.
- Check servings per pack.
- Mentally multiply if you'll eat the whole thing.
The four numbers that matter most
Per 100g (the comparable basis — ignore per-serving when comparing two products):
- Added sugars — different from total sugars. Fruit's natural sugar comes with fibre; added sugar is empty. Watch for its many names: syrup, maltodextrin, cane juice, dextrose.
- Sodium — the salt proxy. Processed food is where most dietary sodium hides, not the salt shaker.
- Saturated fat — the fat type most worth limiting.
- Fibre — one of the few where more is better. Most people fall short.
The traffic-light idea behind our scores
The UK's Food Standards Agency popularised a simple model: rate fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt as green / amber / red per 100g, and reward fibre, protein, and produce content. It's not perfect, but it turns a wall of numbers into an at-a-glance judgement.
That's essentially what EcoExpress's health score does — it reads the same nutrients and returns a 0–100 band so you can compare two products instantly.
One rule we hold strictly: we never score a basket with missing data. If the nutrition information isn't complete, we show "not scored" rather than guess. A confident wrong number is worse than an honest blank.
The 30-second habit
You don't need to become a dietitian. For any packaged product, do this:
- Serving size — is it realistic?
- Added sugar and sodium per 100g — how do two options compare?
- Fibre — is there any?
Do that for a week and you'll start reaching for the better option automatically. The label already tells you the truth; you just have to read the back instead of the front.