Understanding Food Labels

There is a lot of information on food packaging which is good but it can be confusing to work out what is relevant. One of the most important elements is knowing the difference between the best before and use by date for personal safety as well as helping you reduce your food waste.

Use by dates

This is the most important date to be aware of, it is all about safety. Foods can be eaten before the use by date but not after – no cooking, eating or freezing as the food could be unsafe for consumption.

Best before dates

These are about quality. The food is fully safe to eat past this date but it might be past its best. This means its texture, flavour, appearance might not be as good as it once was, but it is still completely edible. 

Loose fruit and vegetables do not need to have date labels however, when packaged, a ‘best before’ date has to be added.  Recently more supermarkets in the United Kingdom and around the world are removing the best before dates when they can, in order to allow customers to decide if the food is edible using their judgement and senses.

Nutrition Panel 

This highlights what is in the product as well as the nutritional information. The ingredients are listed in order of the greatest quantity in the product to the least. It is requirement that all products depict the amount of salt, sugar and fat per serving as well as per 100g to help you compare. A guide on low, medium and high amounts of fat, saturates, sugar and salt is below;

Source; Heart UK

At the supermarket, you might not have enough time to review and compare two products to decide which is best. If you have a smart phone, The NHS Food Scanner App can help! You scan the barcode and it will provide you with information on the amount of salt, sugar and fat. Based off this, the app will tell you if it’s a healthy choice or provide you with some swaps if not.