How savvy are you about reading–and clearly understanding–food labels when you are shopping?
Food labels can help us to make smart decisions about the foods we buy, but there can be confusion among shoppers about their real meaning.
For example, if you were asked about the difference between natural and organic food you might struggle to give a clear answer. Well, it’s important to know that organic foods must have at least 95% organically produced ingredients and cannot be produced with any antibiotics, so these are products you should actively look to buy.
Natural food labels are a little more unclear as the FDA has no official definition and any guidelines are only recommended. The amazing thing is that some natural food may be good but others will simply use this label to help sell more of a product.
Meat labels can also lead to confusion as the definitions can be a little unclear. For example, if you see no hormones on a chicken label you shouldn’t spend more money as it is in fact illegal to sell chicken with hormones.
Another interesting situation is with snack food labels. Many people believe that the words light, low-fat and reduced-fat mean a food is okay to eat. However, you must remember that foods with high fat to begin with may still be extremely bad for you.
This handy infographic from HappyCleans takes you through some of the typical food labels we see in the store that you may be misinterpreting. Find out everything you need to know about food labels below.
Do you understand how to read and interpret food labels?
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