How to read food labels

Research shows that most consumers do examine product labels before making a buying decision, but do they really understand what they’re looking at?

You can actually tell a lot about products by looking at the food labels or dietary supplement labels, everything from the ingredients and calories to whether or not it’s an organic food or includes genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Some of the information, like the Nutrition Facts label, is required by government regulations. Other information is there because the company wants customers to know about what’s in the product or how the ingredients were grown. Transparency is important.

For those of you who don’t usually look at food labels before putting something in your cart (virtual or otherwise), here’s a basic guide on how to read food labels and what some of the terminology means.

Deciphering the Nutrition Facts label

The Nutrition Facts label is easy to recognize. Regulations require conventional foods and dietary supplements to display one on packaging to help consumers make smarter food choices. The chart clearly lists serving size, calorie count, the amount of certain nutrients in each serving and the percentage of the Daily Value of that nutrient they represent.

The Daily Values are the recommended amounts of nutrients someone should consume or not exceed each day. They are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Showing the percentage can help consumers know if the food is high or low in that nutrient – 5% or less is low, 20% or more is high.

The nutrients included in the chart are total fats, saturated fats, trans fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates (fiber, sugars), protein, vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium. Whether you want high or low depends on which nutrient you’re talking about, of course.

Saturated fat and sodium? Look for the low numbers. Dietary fiber, protein or vitamins? Go high. (Note: Unless the product is designed to deliver protein like protein powders, drinks or bars, the chart isn’t required to include a daily value percentage for protein, only the amount per serving.)

All these numbers can be helpful when trying to make healthy decisions about food. From the chart, you know that the serving size is only a quarter of a bag of chips and not the whole thing. (Oops.) Or you can be aware that you just consumed about half of your daily value of sodium in one sitting, allowing you to monitor your sodium intake for the rest of the day.

What does it mean if a food is labeled organic?

What is organic food? In the most general sense, organic food is food that is produced without conventional pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or any kind of bioengineering. If meat, eggs and dairy products are labeled organic, that means they come from animals that were given no antibiotics or growth hormones during the animal’s lifetime.

The most common labels you will see are the USDA organic seal and the Canadian organic logo. Canada and the U.S. have a reciprocal agreement for organic standards. Items with these seals have met strict production, certification and labeling standards under the requirements for organic certification in the U.S. or Canada.

Products under these seals have been produced without genetic engineering and do not contain GMOs. There are rules that allow natural substances to be used in organic farming while forbidding the use of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.

Currently, there are four separate USDA labeling possibilities for organic foods:

1. 100% Organic: All ingredients must be certified organic, and any processing aids also must be organic.
2. Organic: All ingredients in these foods must be certified organic. In some cases, specific non-organic ingredients are allowed, up to a total of 5%.
3. “Made with” organic: These are typically multi-ingredient products. At least 70 percent of the product has to be certified organic. Any other food ingredients included don’t have to be produced organically but can’t have been produced using prohibited methods.
4. Specific organic ingredients: You will sometimes see food packaging with only certain ingredients listed as organic. These are generally multi-ingredient products that have less than 70 percent of their total ingredients that qualify as certified organic.

When you are searching for organic foods, beverages and other organic products, it pays to be a label detective and understand the quality behind the brand. For example, Amway’s Nutrilite™ brand is the first and only global vitamin and dietary supplement brand with a USDA Organic certified product line to grow, harvest and process plants on their own certified organic farms.*

Amway owns nearly 6,000 acres at four certified organic farms (two of which are in the U.S.) where plants are grown for processing into extracts used in a wide selection of Amway™ products, including supplements, skin care and personal care.

What does non-GMO mean

The acronym GMO means Genetically Modified Organism. Any animal, plant or other organism whose genetic material has been changed in ways that don’t occur in nature is considered GMO, or, under the USDA standards, bioengineered.

A non-GMO label means that a food and its ingredients have been produced without the use of genetic engineering, and that herbicides that contain GMOs have not been used.

Non-GMO does not mean a food is organic or that it has been produced according to certified organic standards. Non-GMO foods can be grown and produced using conventional, non-organic farming methods. The Non-GMO Project is the nonprofit that handles the third-party verification and labeling program for all non-GMO foods in North America.

Let’s talk about expiration dates

Many foods and dietary supplements will also have a date printed on the label, whether it’s an expiration date, a best before date or a use by date. Those dates do not indicate whether a product is safe or not. They do provide information about the product’s potential quality over time. Here are the basic definitions:

• Best before date: Indicates the potential shelf life and/or freshness of the unopened product. In Canada, it must be printed on pre-packaged foods that will keep fresh for 90 days or less.
• Use by date: Used instead of “best before” on prepackaged, fresh yeast.
• Expiration date: Indicates the time after which the product may not have the same nutrient content declared on the label. It’s a requirement for certain products, including meal replacements and nutritional supplements.

In general, manufacturers do not guarantee a product’s freshness, quality or stability after the date indicated on the label. Once that date passes, a product’s appearance, flavor, texture or nutritional value may have changed.

Expiration dates for Nutrilite supplements, for example, are set by scientists who conduct studies on how long the product holds up under conditions in which it might be shipped or stored — both before and after it has been opened. Nutrilite products are distributed into climates ranging from hot and humid (think Mississippi summers) to extreme cold (Alaskan winters), so setting a common expiration date is complex.

The goal is to determine the length of time that a product will retain its optimum potency, consistency and overall quality. After that time, the quality and effectiveness of the products cannot be guaranteed. Nutrilite scientists advise tossing supplements after their expiration dates to ensure the highest quality nutrients.

With all this information, you should be able to shop with more confidence as you read packages, examine nutrition labels and decide between organic food vs conventional or GMO vs non-GMO. Remember, look for nutrient-rich foods that will be best for your body and your family’s health!

*Source: GlobalData (https://gdretail.net/amway-claims/)