Tips To Help You Understand Food Labels

The first place to start when you look at the Nutrition Facts label is the serving size and the number of servings in the package. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package. And keep your intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol as low as possible as part of a nutritionally balanced diet.

* No fat or fat free: Contains less than ½ gram of fat per serving

* Lower or reduced fat: Contains at least 25 per cent less per serving than the reference food. (An example might be reduced fat cream cheese, which would have at least 25 per cent less fat than original cream cheese.)

* Low fat: Contains less than 3 grams of fat per serving

* Lite: Contains one-third the calories or ½ the fat per serving of the original version or a similar product

* No calories or calorie free: Contains less than 5 calories per serving

* Low calories: Contains one-third the calories of the original version or a similar product

* Sugar free: Contains less than ½ gram of sugar per serving

* Reduced sugar: At least 25 per cent less sugar per serving than the reference food

* No preservatives: Contains no preservatives (chemical or natural)

* No preservatives added: Contains no added chemicals to preserve the product. Some of these products may contain natural preservatives

* Low sodium: Contains less than 140 mg of sodium per serving

* No salt or salt-free: Contains less than 5 mg of sodium per serving

* High fibre: 5 g or more per serving (Foods making high-fiber claims must meet the definition for low fat, or the level of total fat must appear next to the high-fibre claim)

* Good source of fibre: 2.5 g to 4.9 g per serving

* More or added fibre: Contains at least 2.5 g more per serving than the reference food.

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