Advice to food shoppers: read the information on the labels

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 13

Advice to food shoppers: read the information on the labels

So that you can provide the best nutrition for yourself and your family, Weight Watchers advise that it is important for you to be “label conscious.” Reading labels at the supermarket sometimes seems like a full day’s work. Fortunately, there are really only a few tips to understanding food labels and making them work for you. Try these:

1. Even before comparing prices, compare products. Notice, not only the product and brand names, but also the style of packing. Canned fruits can come whole or in sections, for instance: tuna can be packed in water or oil. In partictSar. watch for de-

scriptive words like, “sugar added.” Phrases like “juice drink” can also be clues to knowing you’re not buying juice.

2. The listing of ingredients on a label is in the order of proportionate amounts by weight. This can be quite a revelation. It not only tells you what additives, and ingredients are in a product, but also whether . there’s more bread than veal in the prepared cutlets on sale.

3.’ Knowing,'that by law, nutritional information must be on any product containing added nutrients, or making a nutritional claim, can give you a wonderful feeling of control. There is no way you can

be fooled by all the psychologically packaged goods, once you know where and when to look for nutritional information for comparison. It’s most, often on the back or sides of packaging. 4. Once armed with the knowledge of what you are actually buying, you ■' can then compare prices intelligently. Check amounts by net weight where, available’, and don’t rely on package size — which can be deceptive. It’s the net weight that tells you how much product, without package ’ weight, you’re getting. Remember, however. that it does include any liquid a food is packed with.

5. In some cases the directions for cookinn <”>n prove a marvellous source of information. iaKc ~.e time to notice what has to be added to the food to make it table-ready. If milk or eggs are needed, tor example, adjust the price in your head when comparing it to a product to which you only have to add water. Sometimes, tire number and size of portions a product will yield can also be found in the cooking directions. 6. Finally, use unit pricing whenever it’s available. It’s very simple if you just remember that it’s the unit price that is the sandard and, therefore, the one to compare. The other price

on the package is the one ’ you will pay, and is de- • pendent upon the amount ; of the product the package ! contains.