A lot of food in Singapore is still imported, so it helps to know the health rating system of different countries.

If a food product comes from Australia or New Zealand it often has a star rating on the label to show how healthy it is. The system provides a rating from a half star to five stars – the more stars, the healthier the choice. Over 10,000 products from Australia and New Zealand now have star ratings on their labels. But remember that the stars only provide a comparison within similar product categories – so the system helps choose between one breakfast cereal and another, not between yoghurt and pasta sauce.

What if the food product comes from America? In September 2022 the US Food and Drug Administration announced new rules for nutrition labels. Under this new proposal, food manufacturers can label their products “healthy” if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the healthy food groups, such as fruit, vegetable or dairy.

They also have to reduce saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain less than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serve, to get the word “healthy” on the label.

But the Americans are still working out the details and the chop for the packaging.

Packaged foods from China and Europe also do not have mandatory healthier choice labels or star ratings on the front of the packages, so you still have to read the nutrition label on the back.

If you’ve ever wondered just how much fruit juice is in that fruit juice drink you like? Here is how you work it out. “On food labels, ingredients are listed in order of quantity – so if sugar is the first ingredient, it’s the biggest ingredient in the food. To make a healthier choice, just look for healthier ingredients at the top of the list on the label” explains nutritionist Lyndi Cohen.

“A healthier food choice will have more whole food ingredients earlier in the ingredients list, and sugar, sodium and fat lower down the ingredients list.”

If you want to eat healthy, “Sugar should not be in the first four ingredients of your packaged food,” says Lyndi Cohen. But she adds that added salt and sugar can sometimes show up on food labels in disguise.

Added salt is sometimes called sodium chloride or rock salt, Added sugar often shows up on food and drink labels under these names: Anhydrous dextrose, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, crystal dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose sweetener, fruit juice concentrates, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, liquid fructose, malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses, pancake syrup, raw sugar, sugar, syrup and white sugar.

Other types of sugar you might see on ingredient lists are fructose, lactose and maltose. Fructose is added sugar from fruit and vegetables; lactose is sugar from milk; and maltose is sugar that comes from grain

Lyndi Cohen stresses “There is no need to quit sugar or salt entirely or miss out on your favorite foods.” You can have a certain amount each day and still be healthy.

Reading labels just gives you the chance to choose when you eat your salt and sugar – for example, you might be surprised to find out how much sugar pasta sauce contains! “Pasta sauce tastes savory, but many packaged brands contain 6-12 grams of sugar in half a cup,” explains Lyndi Cohen.

Text: Bauer Syndication/ARE Media

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