Get to grips with traffic light labels

You will often see a traffic light label on the front of food packaging. This is telling you the nutritional information per serving. A recommended serving can often be different from how much we want to eat or how much is in the packaging itself, so keep an eye on it. For example, the food label on the front of a 100g bag of nuts may say “150 calories” but if that’s just for a 25g serving size, and you end up eating half the bag, you have actually eaten 300 calories.  

The traffic light colours tell you whether a food is high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. The more green you see on the label, the better. But that doesn’t mean you have to restrict yourself to food with nothing but green on the label: ambers are fine to have fairly frequently – just be aware this range is quite wide and some amber-coded foods can fall just below the cut off for a red. 

Decoding the back of the packaging

On the back of packaging, you can find more detailed nutritional information, both per serving and per 100g. By looking at foods per 100g, you can easily compare different products to find the option lower in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.   

You can also use this handy food label decoder to work out how healthy a food is. 

If you have a Smartphone, download the Food Switch app – which lets you scan an item’s barcode with your phone’s camera to decode the label and offer healthier alternatives. 

Understanding ingredients list

On the back of packaging, you can find more detailed nutritional information, both per serving and per 100g. By looking at foods per 100g, you can easily compare different products to find the option lower in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.   

You can also use this handy food label decoder to work out how healthy a food is. 

If you have a Smartphone, download the Food Switch app – which lets you scan an item’s barcode with your phone’s camera to decode the label and offer healthier alternatives. 

Decoding the back of the packaging

On the back of packaging, you can find more detailed nutritional information, both per serving and per 100g. By looking at foods per 100g, you can easily compare different products to find the option lower in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.   

You can also use this handy food label decoder to work out how healthy a food is. 

If you have a Smartphone, download the Food Switch app – which lets you scan an item’s barcode with your phone’s camera to decode the label and offer healthier alternatives.