THE ROLE OF FOOD LABELS

In the last few years, food labels have acquired a very important role. Now, more than ever, people are very worried about the food labels of what they eat, like sodium. Many people have to maintain control their intake of this ingredient. Hence, they need to be alert on the levels of sodium reported by food labels.

Another ingredient popular in food labels is fat. There are many kinds of fat and food labels should indicate what kind of fat the product contains. For example, there is unsaturated fat and saturated fat in food labels. Most of unsaturated fat is known as “good fat", the one that the body needs for functioning properly; it is the kind of fat found in the food labels of determined marine food.

But, all of unsaturated fat isn’t beneficial to us. Lately, many companies have decided to eliminate from their food labels one kind of unsaturated fat: trans fats Trans fats are usually found in the food labels of red meat, milk, cheese among other products in the market.

Unfortunately, there are companies that use their food labels to mislead consumers. For example, there are a lot of people who want to reduce their weight; hence, they are always looking for food labels that report little or no fat inside. What they do not know is that the product, in order to compensate the lack of taste, uses sugar.

This can be found in the food labels of products such as candy (chocolate, marshmallows, caramels, fudge, and toffee, among others) or in the food labels of snacks (like fried potatoes or pop corn).

That's why it is very important, for any person following a nutritional regime, to read food labels carefully. They may find hidden surprises in the food labels of their favourite edibles.