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Click on the links below to find out more. How can I tell if it's safe to eat? Activity
sheets on food labelling What's in your food?
In this pizza, the list shows that the two biggest ingredients are wheat flour and water. For the other main ingredients, the company gives a percentage (%). The product is 7% tomato, 6% cheese, 5% ham, 5% Pepperoni, 4% Monterey Jack cheese, 3% spicy beef and 2% bacon. Food and drink products only
have to give percentages for some of the ingredients in a product, usually
the ones that provide the product with its main flavour or 'character'.
That's why this pizza doesn't give the percentage of flour or water in
the product, but does tell us how much tomato, cheese and meat it contains.
For more information see QUID
labelling.
Apart from flour, water, cheese and tomato (the basic recipe for most pizzas), the rest of the ingredients are spices, salt and flavourings. There are also additives such as Sodium Nitrite and Calcium Propionate, which are used to make the meat, cheese and flour last longer. For some foods, the manufacturers do not need to declare the ingredients. These include small sweets, food sold unwrapped from a bakery or delicatessen counter, and restaurant and take-away food. Companies making alcoholic drinks do not need to list the ingredients. And if a food is made of just one ingredient (such as pure fruit juice), it doesn't need an ingredients list either.
Who made the food?
Sometimes they will also include a phone number where staff are specially trained to answer a customer's enquiries. But it's not enough for a company just to give a website address. They have to give you enough information so that you could write to them if there was a problem. Don't be nervous
about complaining if you buy a dodgy product. You may be helping other
customers by pointing out the problem. Either take it back to the shop
where you bought it, or send the company the packaging and a short letter
explaining what was wrong. Most companies will provide a refund if they
think your complaint is genuine.
How can I tell if it's safe to eat?
Some foods will last longer if you freeze them. The label should give you details of how long it can safely be kept frozen. You might see a 'Best before' date on some food. This is used on foods that last longer and are less dangerous when they are out of date. Eating food or drink older than its 'Best before' date may not make you ill, but it might not taste as good. It is legal for shops to sell food after its 'Best before' date. 'Use by' and 'Best before' dates only apply if food has been stored correctly. For instance, bacon needs to be kept cold in a fridge, not stored in a warm cupboard. Shops use
'Sell by' or 'Display until' dates to ensure that old stock is taken off
the shelves. It is legal to sell food older than its 'Sell by' or 'Display
until' date.
What if I have an allergy? If you have a food allergy, a new law coming into force in 2006 should give you better information. Food companies will have to list all ingredients known to trigger common allergic reactions.
What does the food weigh?
An e symbol written next to the weight means that this is the estimated weight of the product, but that the weight of each pack may vary slightly. By
comparing the weights and volumes of products you can work out which
gives you the best value for money.
If you buy a chicken pie, the label has to tell you how much chicken it contains. The same goes for other foods - the label has to say how much fruit is in your jam and how much meat is in your meat feast pizza. The rule is meant
to stop food companies replacing expensive ingredients like chicken with
cheap ingredients like potato or starch. The label (above) shows you what
these numbers would look like on a chicken and rice meal. This means you
know more about what you're buying and can compare it to other products.
No - it's because this product
is made with dried meat. The company is telling you how much meat they
started with to make this sausage product (during processing the meat
is dried, so it loses water and weight).
Is this food healthy? Many food companies say their food is healthy, but only a few give you the information you need to decide if they are telling the truth. The ingredients list and nutrition panel show what the food contains, and are usually more reliable than the pictures or descriptions of the food.
Here is another way in which nutrition information is provided. The label of this supermarket pizza shows you that if you eat one quarter of the pizza, you'll consume 395 kcalories and 12.9g of fat.
The government is putting pressure on food companies to tell you how healthy your food is. The information needs to be clearly written, in a way that everyone understands. At the moment, the government guidelines are as follows:
Click here to download activity sheets on the subject of food labelling.
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The
law says that food labels have to give you certain information. 
Food
and drink labels must display a list of what's in the food (there are
a few exceptions to this rule - see the end of this section). Shown below
is a real label from a supermarket own-brand pizza. It has 78 ingredients.
These have to be listed in descending order of weight - biggest first
- so you can see what the main ingredients are in a product.
Food
and drink companies must include their name and address on the packaging
of their products, so that any problems can be traced back to the company.
The details should look something like this:
Foods
that go off quickly must show a 'Use by' date. Eating food or drink older
than its 'Use by' date could make you very ill - especially if the food
contains meat. It is illegal for shops to sell food after this date. The
picture shows the 'Use by' date on the label of a meat feast pizza.
Some
companies already give this information. The label of the pizza shows
that the product contains ingredients made from milk, wheat and gluten.
Allergies to milk wheat or gluten are quite common, so allergy sufferers
know that they should avoid eating this product. 
Most
food products have to display their weight (e.g. 545g) and drinks have
to display their volume (e.g. 500ml). One gram (1g) is about the same
amount of 'stuff' as one millilitre (1ml).
How
much food is in my food?
Such
information is very useful if you want to compare products and see which
is fattiest. But it doesn't explain if the pizza is high in fat
or low in fat. Is it healthy or not? Pizzas vary a lot. In this
case, the pizza is medium fat and high in salt, but the
label doesn't tell you.
