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When you look round the supermarket there are thousands of food and drink products to choose from. Lots of them carry logos to try to attract your attention and tell you that the product is special in some way. Some of the logos tell you something useful, but some of them are simply there to persuade you to buy the product. Click on the logos to find out more.
You'll
find claims like 'rich in calcium' and 'full of calcium' on all sorts
of foods. Sometimes food is naturally rich in calcium, and But sometimes
products with added calcium also have unhealthy levels of fat,
salt or sugar,
such as cereal bars or cheesy snacks. Sometimes the claim 'rich in calcium'
is used to give unhealthy products a healthy image. When you see the claim,
ask yourself: Is this product really healthy to eat? Brain and body energy
The
simple thing to remember is: All food contains energy. But food that claims
to be a special source of energy is usually full of sugar.
Good for your heart? When a heart logo appears on a food label, it's usually to give you the impression that eating the food is good for your heart. Even though that message sounds quite simple, the logos can mean different things.
However, some heart logos appear on cereals that are not made of whole grain. The logo shows only that the cereal is low fat. But there's nothing special about that - most cereals are low in fat. And worse still, some heart logos appear on breakfast cereals that are high in salt. Eating a lot of salt is bad for your heart! There aren't
any laws to stop food companies putting heart logos on products that don't
deserve to have them. It's best not to trust them unless the company tells
you exactly what they mean. Is it really suitable for lunchboxes?
Here's a bit of maths. The average school year is 190 days. Multiply 6.6 million pupils by 190 school days, and you can work out that about 1,254,000,000 (1,254 million, or 1.2 billion) pack lunches are eaten at school every year. And that's just in England! A company that can get its food or drink product into those lunchboxes is going to make a great deal of money. That's why so many snacks and drinks are labelled as 'ideal for lunchboxes' or 'suitable for lunchboxes'. Unfortunately, many of the products are designed to be occasional 'treats' rather than foods eaten every day. They are often high in salt, fat or sugar. If you want the occasional treat, that's okay, but if you want to eat good food, then don't fall for 'quick-fix' products that claim to be ideal for lunchboxes. Get creative and make your own fresh sandwiches. All you need is bread and the fillings or spreads of your choice. If you want, you can cram in some extra fingers of cheese. Yogurt makes a tasty and nutritious dessert. And if you want something sweet to finish off, try fresh or dried fruit.
Can added vitamins perform magic?
Adding a sprinkling
of vitamins and mineral powder to sugary and fatty products might make
us think that sugary and fatty products are good for us - and that's simply
not true.
If a food or drink describes itself as 'pure' you can be fairly sure that nothing else has been added to it. So 'pure'
fruit juice shouldn't contain any added sugar, flavourings or colourings.
And 'pure' yogurt shouldn't contain any added sugar, starch or additives.
Many of us eat too much fat, but how should we cut down? Avoiding 'high fat' foods is difficult, because most manufacturers won't tell you if their product is high in fat. But choosing 'low fat' foods is easy, because there is a law that says manufacturers cannot use the claim 'low fat' unless their food contains 3 grams (3g) of fat per 100g or less. There's one exception. Margarines and spreads can claim to be 'low fat' even if they are up to 40g of fat per 100g! The term is used to help people choose lower fat options. 'Low fat' labels grab the eye and look appealing, but they don't necessarily mean that a food is healthy. For example, 'low fat' foods might still be high in sugar or calories. If you want
to eat healthily you need to think about the true nutritional quality
of the food you eat. Don't just trust healthy looking claims and logos
that you see on food labels.
Companies are allowed to label their food products as 'reduced fat' if the products contain at least a quarter less fat (25% less) than the standard products that the company produces. These 'reduced
fat' logos look good, but bear in mind that they are used on foods which
are often very high in fat in the first place, so the 'reduced fat' versions
can still contain quite large amounts of fat. This description doesn't
necessarily mean the product is healthy.
If you want to stay healthy you should try to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. That's straightforward if you're used to eating fresh fruit and home-cooked food made from natural ingredients. But if you eat lots of processed foods and rely on ready-made meals or take-aways, then it's all too easy to miss your five-a-day target. To help everyone reach the target, the government's Department of Health designed the '5 a day' logo. Companies can use the logo to promote fresh fruit and veg, and on canned and frozen foods that contain at least one portion of fruit or veg. A portion is roughly the same size as a handful of the food. The government won't allow the logo on foods high in fat, salt or sugar. However, some companies have unofficial schemes and logos, which they sometimes put on foods that contain fat, salt or sugar, so it's worth looking out for the official logo. But you don't need a logo to tell you that fruit and veg are good to eat. With or without a logo, fresh fruit and veg are cheap, healthy and surprisingly tasty.
Organic food is produced in a way that is kinder to animals and to the environment. Many people prefer to eat organic food, even though it is sometimes more expensive. Food companies that follow organic rules have to work hard to earn the right to display an organic logo on their products. Organic farms and factories are inspected by independent organisations, to make sure that the standards are upheld. The Soil Association is the leading organic organisation in the UK, and if you see its logo on a product you can be sure the product is organic. The Soil Association has inspectors that visit farms and factories. Like many other logos, the
Soil Association logo can be used on products that are high in fat,
sugar or salt,
and less healthy to eat. But at least you can tell that the ingredients
were produced by farmers who care about their animals, the land they farm,
and the wildlife that shares the land with them.
Many foods, such as chocolate, bananas and exotic fruit, are grown by small-scale farmers in the developing world. Such farmers are sometimes forced into crippling debt because the prices they are paid may not even cover the cost of producing their crop. Sometimes they lose their land and their homes. The Fairtrade Foundation was set up to ensure that poor producers in developing countries get a fair price for the food they grow, and that workers receive fair wages and decent working conditions. When you buy
foods displaying the fair trade logo you can be sure that the farmer receives
a good price for his crop. The Fair Trade Foundation also helps people
living in developing countries to build schools and hospitals to help
whole communities.
There are over three million vegetarians in Britain. That's a lot of people who have chosen not to eat meat or fish, but it's not always easy for them to choose vegetarian foods because meat and fish products can end up in all sorts of unexpected places. For example, a common food ingredient called gelatine is made from the skins and bones of dead pigs and cattle. Gelatine can be used in lots of products that you might assume were vegetarian, like yogurts, biscuits, sweets and ice cream. To help vegetarians
choose the foods they want to eat some companies use 'vegetarian' logos
to guarantee that their food products are totally free of meat and fish.
While vegetarians choose not to eat meat or fish, they do eat dairy products and eggs. However, vegans go one step further. Vegans avoid all products that come from animals, because they don't like the idea that animals should be farmed for human use. They don't eat eggs because these are laid by chickens. They don't eat dairy products like milk, yogurt, cream or cheese because these come from cows. Some avoid honey because it comes from bees.
The Vegan logo shows that food or drink is okay for vegans to eat and
that it doesn't contain any animal products.
The description 'Halal' means that a food or drink product is suitable for Muslim people to eat. There are several Halal logos and they usually look something like the one on the right. A Halal logo guarantees that the food ingredients have been selected and prepared following strict religious rules. The rules mainly affect meat. Halal food containing meat or meat products must come only from certain types of animal and fish, and no ingredients from pigs can be used. Animals used for Halal food have to be killed by someone who is Muslim in accordance with the Islamic Shariah (religious guidelines). The meat must not get contaminated with non-Halal meat during transport, storage or cooking. Using alcohol
as a food ingredient is also strictly forbidden.
The description 'Kosher' means that a food or drink product is suitable for Jewish people to eat. There is no single logo, but most look something like the one on the right. A Kosher logo guarantees that food ingredients have been selected and prepared following strict religious rules. The rules mainly affect meat, milk and bread. Kosher food containing meat or meat products must come only from certain types of animal and fish, and no ingredients from pigs can be used. Animals used for Kosher food have to be killed in a traditional way. Kosher food containing milk must be prepared separately to avoid contamination with meat products. At Passover
- the main Jewish festival - Kosher bread is made without yeast. This
is in remembrance of Jewish people's ancestors, who had to leave Egypt
thousands of years ago and had no time to prepare their bread in the traditional
way.
Click here to download activity sheets on the subject of food labelling
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Calcium
claims
Several
food and drink companies declare that their products can provide special
food or fuel for the brain. What they usually mean is that their products
are high in 
The
logos on the left appear on breakfast cereal packets from two big food
companies. They are used to show that the products are low in 
There
were over 7 million school pupils in England in 2004 - in nurseries, primary
schools and secondary schools. According to a recent survey, most of them
(6.6 million) don't eat school meals. Instead, they bring in pack lunches
or buy lunch outside school.
There
are lots of companies that boast about the 
However,
sometimes vitamins and minerals are extracted from good food, or manufactured
in laboratories, and then added to junky foods to make them seem healthier
than they really are. This chocolate spread boasts that it contains added
calcium, magnesium and vitamins. But these can't magically transform the
spread into a healthy product. Half of the product is 
Pure
Low
fat 
Reduced
fat
Five
a day
Vegetarian
Vegan
Halal
