Food labelling has become something of a contentious issue in recent years with manufacturers under pressure to be clearer about a product’s ingredients. The terms printed on the labels are ones we have all become familiar with, such as “healthy choice” or “low in fat”. But critics suggest these labels don’t mean what we think they do.
For example, some products are flagged as “low in sodium” or “sodium reduced” and this is supposed to relate to the amount of salt it contains. Sodium plays an important role in regulating bodily function such as fluid levels. In salt, it also gives food flavour and helps to preserve it. However, having too much salt in your diet can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure and this has led to food manufacturers cutting back on how much sodium their products contain.
However, many that claim to be low in sodium content are still higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily salt intake of 5g. The only clear way to reduce sodium in your food is to avoid eating pre-packaged products and fast food, and not adding salt to your food at home.
Controversy also surrounds products that are labelled as low in fat. The dangers of eating too much fatty food are well documented – saturated fats found in meat and trans fats added to bakery goods raise the risk of heart disease, and even eating too much unsaturated fat, lauded for its ability to reduce cholesterol, is not healthy. Labels that suggest a product is low in fat can sometimes be misleading because the exact type of fat it contains may not be revealed and the quantities in which the fat is low may not be the quantity people eat. Also fat adds flavour and removing it from food usually involves the addition of something like sugar to replace that lost flavour, in which case all the benefits of the product being low fat are lost.
Perhaps the most contentious label is the one that says “no added sugar”. Just like fat, sugar adds flavour and so if a manufacturer is not adding refined sugar to a product, the replacement is likely to be something that naturally contains sugar such as concentrated fruit juice.
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