Label claims

Low salt or low sodium
The food must contain no more than 120mg of sodium per 100g.

Light or lite
This could mean anything! It may mean less energy, sugar or fat. But it could also refer to the colour or flavour. Check the fine print.

Diet or low calorie
Diet claims aren’t regulated but the food must be lower in kilojoules than the original product. They’re likely to include artificial sweeteners.

Premium, pure, real, natural
Words like these can influence what we buy. But there’s no guarantee they’ll deliver. There’s no legal definition for the use of these terms, so the product may be no better or different from other products on the supermarket shelf.

Pork-flavoured
The percentage of the characterising ingredient or ingredients must be declared in the ingredients list. Pork sausages must declare how much (or how little) pork they contain. But don’t expect pork-flavoured sausages to contain any pork at all.

Good source of energy
This probably means the food is high in energy or kilojoules. It won’t enhance your vitality and doesn’t mean it’s particularly good or bad for you. Watch the ones high in sugar. For example, many breakfast cereals make a high energy claim but they're usually the products high in sugar.

Cholesterol free
The “invisible” bonus – it tends to appear on products that wouldn’t have cholesterol anyway. Dietary cholesterol is only found in foods of animal origin. The amount of dietary cholesterol you eat has little effect on your blood cholesterol levels. It’s more important to cut back on saturated and trans fats. 

Baked not fried
Crackers and chippies make this claim. It sounds good – we all know fried equals fat. But baked products may still contain as much fat as fried foods if they contain fat to start with. 

No added sugar
The food may still contain a lot of natural sugar. The sugars on the nutrition information panel refers both to added sugars and sugar that’s naturally present. Most foods contain some sugar.

Reduced fat
Reduced fat doesn’t mean low-fat. A product should have 25% less fat than its regular brand to make this claim. Sometimes the reduced fat product is topped up with sugar.

Watch for sneaky serving sizes

Some products state they contain more than one serving, even though you'd probably consume them in one go. Compare products per 100g or 100ml, but think about how much of them you'll be eating or drinking.