Read the Label

Read the Label first!

Ingredient list

The ingredient list shows all the ingredients in a packaged food.

Ingredients are listed in order of weight, beginning with the ingredient that weighs the most and ending with the ingredient that weighs the least. This means that a food contains more of the ingredients found at the beginning of the list, and less of the ingredients at the end of the list.

Example: The ingredient list below is for bran cereal. The ingredient that is present in thelargest amount is whole wheat, and the ingredient present in the smallest amount is minerals.

Ingredients: Whole wheat, wheat bran, sugar/glucose-fructose, salt, malt (corn flour, malted barley), vitamins (thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, d-calcium pantothenate), minerals (iron, zinc oxide).

Reading the ingredient list is both important and useful. It can help you:

• Check if a food product has a certain ingredient.
• Avoid ingredients in case of a food allergy or intolerance.

Ingredients with many names

Sometimes nutrients like saturated and trans fats, sodium, and sugar appear on ingredient lists under many different names. Here's a list of the most commonly used terms.

Commonly used terms

Nutrient	Other names
Saturated fat	Bacon Beef fat Butter Chicken fat Cocoa butter Coconut or coconut oil Hydrogenated fats and oils Lard Palm or palm kernel oil Powdered whole milk solids Shortening Suet Tallow
Trans fat	Hard margarine Hydrogenated fats and oils Partially hydrogenated fats and oils Shortening
Sodium	Baking powder Baking soda Brine Celery salt Disodium phosphate Garlic salt Monosodium glutamate (MSG) Onion salt Salt Sodium alginate Sodium benzoate Sodium bisulfate Sodium proprionate Soy sauce
Sugar	Brown sugar Cane juice extract Corn syrup Demerara or Turbinado sugar Dextrose Evaporated cane juice Fructose Galactose Glucose Glucose-fructose High-fructose corn syrup Honey Invert sugar Lactose Liquid sugar Maltose Molasses Sucrose Syrup Treacle Tip: A word ending in "ose" is usually sugar.

source: Health Canada