Picture this: you're standing in your local supermarket, staring at two seemingly identical boxes of cereal. The packaging is colourful, the price is similar — but a closer look at the labels reveals important differences. From nutrition information to ingredient lists, food and drink labels contain key details about a product’s quality, nutritional value, and shelf life.
Reading food labels is a skill, and if we get it right, it helps us maintain a balanced diet, make healthier food choices, and improve our overall health and wellbeing.
Types of food labels
There are several types of food labels, including some that are legally mandatory, others that are voluntary, and some that appear on the front of the pack while others are on the back of the pack. Food manufacturers use these labels to inform us about a product’s nutrient content, origin, and how to store or use it properly.
Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of labels there are on a pack? Let’s break them down:1
- Nutrition declaration
- Voluntary front-of-pack ratings like the Nutri-Score (many European countries) and the Traffic Light System (UK)
- Nutrition and health claims such as “low fat” or “source of fibre”
- Ingredient lists
- Allergen information
- Dietary labels: Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free
- Storage instructions and use-by or best-before dates
- Net quantity of the product
- Country of origin and details of the business operator
- Sustainability and certification labels like the EU Organic logo, Fairtrade, recyclability icons, carbon labels, and regional identifiers such as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin)
How can labels help me choose more nutritious food?
You might have noticed that packaged products like your morning cereal or your favourite tofu often have a nutrition label on both the front and back of the packaging. These labels serve different purposes. The back label, called the nutrition declaration, provides detailed information about the nutrients and energy in the product, while the front label offers a quick summary using a visual rating system that busy women, men, and families can understand at a glance in supermarkets.
Nutrition declaration
The nutrition declaration on the back of the pack provides detailed values per 100 g or 100 ml of product. It includes energy (kcal), fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, and salt. It may also include voluntary information such as fibre, vitamins and minerals. For example, if a cereal contains 24 g of sugar per 100 g, then a 50 g serving provides 12 g of sugar.
These figures are often accompanied by reference intakes (RIs), which indicate what percentage of your daily recommended intake each nutrient represents. In this example, 12 g of sugar might equal 14% of an adult’s daily reference intake, and this would be shown on the label.
Want to learn more about sugar, its impact on our health and how to find healthier alternatives? Read our article Sugar 101: what it is, why it matters & healthier alternatives to find out more.
The nutrition declaration shows whether a food is high in fibre or protein, or low in saturated fat, sugar, and salt. Because portion sizes vary, the values are given per 100 g to make comparisons easier. The total weight on the pack (net quantity) helps you work out how many servings it contains—for example, a 750 g cereal box with 50 g servings has 15 portions.
Nutri-Score and the Traffic Light System
While the nutrition declaration is great for detailed insights, we often don't have time to study it while shopping. That’s where front-of-pack labels like Nutri-Score and the Traffic Light System come in. They offer a quick, colour-coded guide to a product’s nutritional quality.
Nutri-Score
Nutri-Score is a voluntary front-of-pack label introduced in France in 2017. In the following years, several other European countries adopted Nutri-Score, including Belgium (2018), Switzerland (2019), Germany (2020), Luxembourg (2021), the Netherlands (2023) and Spain (announced in 2018).
Nutri-Score gives food a letter and colour grade from A (dark green) to E (dark red) to show overall nutritional quality.
How it works:
The score is based on the food’s nutrient profile:
- High fibre, protein, and vitamins = better score
- High sugar, salt, and saturated fat = lower score
For example, a low-sugar, high-protein yogurt might get an A or B, while a chocolate bar could score D or E.
Despite its simplicity and ease of use, the Nutri-Score has faced criticism in recent years, with many arguing that it does not provide a fully accurate representation of a product’s nutritional value.2
My bag of crisps has a green A label. Does this mean that I can rely on crisps for a healthy, balanced diet?
Not necessarily.
A bag of lentil crisps may have a score A when compared to traditional ready-salted potato crisps which have a score C. This doesn’t mean that your lentil crisps are “healthy”, but it does mean they are a better option when compared to the score C crisps.
Nutri-Score serves as a comparison tool to help you find the healthiest options within the same food category.
Traffic Light System
The Traffic Light System is a voluntary label used in the UK, also adopted by some brands in Ireland, which shows the levels of key nutrients in food: energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt — easily and quickly.
How it works:
Each nutrient is colour-coded:
- Green = low (healthier choice)
- Amber = medium
- Red = high (eat less often)
The label also shows Reference Intake (RI) percentages to help you understand how much of each nutrient the product contains per serving.4
This makes it easy to compare items at a glance and choose products that better support your dietary goals.
Nutrition claims
Some foods include nutrition or health claims such as “low cholesterol,” “high in fibre,” or “source of protein.” These are meant to guide you toward foods that support good health. Terms like “low fat” or “high fibre” must meet official criteria to be displayed on packaging.
To prevent misleading advertising, these claims are strictly regulated under EU Regulation 1924/2006. So if a label says a product is “low in salt,” it has been checked to ensure it meets the defined standards. This regulation ensures accuracy, consistency, and consumer trust in nutrition-related claims across Europe.
Read more here: How health claims are regulated
Ingredient lists: what’s really in your food?
Ingredient lists tell you what is inside your food. They are listed in descending order of weight, so the first ingredient is the most abundant. For example, if water is listed first, it’s the main component of the product.
Percentages may also appear, especially for key ingredients. This shows how much of the product is made up of certain components, helping you assess its quality. You’ll also see additives and stabilisers, sometimes listed as E-numbers (like E300 for vitamin C) or unfamiliar names like Xanthan gum. These help improve the product’s texture, taste, or shelf life.
However, not all foods require an ingredient list. Fresh fruit and vegetables, carbonated water, and single-ingredient items are often exempt. Still, for most processed items, reading the list is a great way to evaluate what you're really eating.
Sugars can sometimes be hard to spot in ingredients lists. Here it is split into several aliases (highlighted in yellow).
Did you know?
Food products which have a long list of unrecognisable ingredients are often categorised as processed or ultra-processed foods (UPFs). But, what is the difference between the two?
Processed foods
These are foods that have been changed from their natural state to help them last longer or be easier to use. This includes things like cooking, freezing, canning, or adding salt or sugar. Examples include artisan bread (not packaged bread, which contains artificial preservatives and is classed as a UPF), cheese and baked beans.
Ultra-processed foods
These are heavily modified foods, often made with ingredients you wouldn’t use in home cooking, such as artificial flavours, colours, and preservatives. Examples include crisps, fizzy drinks, instant noodles and packaged biscuits.
The main difference is that ultra-processed foods are more modified and contain more added ingredients. So, when you can, take a moment to check the label—there may be a less processed option available.3
Allergens and dietary labels
If you have food allergies or follow a specific diet, labels are especially important. Allergens are clearly marked in the ingredient list, usually in bold font, making them easy to spot. Allergen labels are mandatory.
Additionally, labels may include dietary icons such as:
- Gluten-Free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
These voluntary additional labels help you find suitable products for your lifestyle or medical needs. Still, it's wise to read the ingredient list thoroughly to confirm the absence of allergens or animal-derived ingredients.
Want to learn more about allergens and how to manage them? Read our article Allergens in food and how to manage them to find out more.
Use-by vs. best-before
Understanding shelf life labels helps ensure food safety and reduces waste. These are commonly phrased as either:
- “Use by”: Eat before this date for safety. After this date, the product may be unsafe.
- “Best before”: Eat before this date for best taste and texture. After this date, the food is usually still safe if stored correctly (4).
Furthermore, foods can lose nutrients over time. When exposed to light and air, a process known as photo-oxidation breaks down the nutrients in food. Natural enzymes within the foods, as well as microorganisms from soil, air and water, can also cause nutrients to break down.
Shelf life labels are often accompanied by storage instructions, such as “Store in a cool, dry place”, or, “Once opened, refrigerate and use within 2 days”.
Following these dates is important to ensure you are eating healthy and tasty food. When it comes to “Best before”, you can always do a smell and taste test before throwing anything away to avoid waste. Vulnerable groups (children, elderly, pregnant, and immunocompromised) should, however, be extra careful.
Sustainability labels
Apart from nutrition, allergen and food safety labels, you can also find voluntary sustainability and certification labels on food packaging, which indicate the quality, origin, and environmental impact of the products.
On food products in Europe, you can usually find the country of origin, if required for consumer clarity, and details of the business operator (such as the name and address of the food business operator established in the EU or importer). These details help trace where the product comes from and who is responsible for it.
You may also see sustainability and certification labels like the EU Organic logo (a green leaf made of stars) for certified organic products, Fairtrade for ethically sourced goods, and recyclability icons showing how to dispose of the packaging. Some products display voluntary carbon footprint labels indicating emissions from production, or PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) to show that a product comes from a specific region and follows traditional methods, like Parmigiano Reggiano or Roquefort.
These labels give you more information about the product’s quality, origin, and impact on people and the planet.
Guiding you towards healthier food choices
Reading food labels is a simple but powerful way to make healthier and more informed choices. Labels like the nutrition declaration, ingredient lists, and dietary claims help you understand what’s in your food and how it fits into a balanced diet.
By learning how to read these labels, you can choose products that support your health, avoid unwanted ingredients, and reduce waste by paying attention to use-by dates and storage advice. Next time you shop, let the label guide you toward better food choices.
