Thursday 25 April 2013

The Importance of Fully Understanding Food Labelling

Nobody wants to expose their person or their family to potentially dangerous and unhealthy foods. The welfare and the health of loved ones are major concerns for the guardians and bread buyers of the family. This makes carefully choosing foodstuffs and ingredients with extreme care a matter of utmost importance. Full understanding of what food labels mean and incur reduces the risk of investing in potentially unhealthy food items.

Understanding Portion Control

You will know better than most how much your family members can eat and what they enjoy. However, the amount of food that is sold may not be the same that is present after preparation. Food items that have high water content are susceptible to significant reduction during the cooking process. This will reduce the quantity of the food. Check the water content of packaged goods to determine roughly how much the food will reduce by upon cooking. This will give a greater understanding of the food supplied.

Judge Amounts per Gram

Many food labels do not demonstrate the full amounts of sugar, fat, salt, calories etc. on the façade of the packaging, they merely show the amounts of a suggested serving of the product. A low fat cheese may suggest that there are only 150 calories within the packaging, but this may be just for 10% of the block that you are buying. Ensure that you work out the full calorific content of the foodstuff that you are buying and then split that into the personal servings of you and your family. This will give a far greater indication of the intake. New food safety regulations are being implemented throughout the world to add greater clarity.

Do your Research

The advent of smartphones has given us access to unlimited information at almost all times. Do not be afraid to use your smartphone in the middle of the store to check an ingredient and the repercussions of its ingestion. The scientific names for ingredients can often be confusing and easy to mix up. A quick Google search can help you discover what the ingredients are and their potential repercussions. This is particularly helpful for people who are buying for those with allergies to certain foods. Alleviate the complexities of food labelling with full and thorough research.

Compare Brands

Comparing the entire ingredient lists and daily allowance lists will help the shopper discover which brands will be more beneficial to them, their family and their recipes. Many items are produced by a number of different brands and producers. This can help you make informed decisions and will restrict the chances of making poor, ill-informed choices.

No comments:

Post a Comment