Ingredient List, Allergy Labeling & %DVs
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The nutrition label is intended to help grocery shoppers make informed decisions about what they eat and drink. Research, however, suggests that food labels are not always the most effective communication tool. Older consumers, parents and women are the major users. But, even in these groups there is confusion about the information listed. Let’s try and decode some of the information available to you on food labels.
Ingredient Listing — Ingredients are listed on labels in descending order by volume. The first ingredient is the one found in the largest amount and the last ingredient in the least amount. If a food lists the first ingredient as sugar, that’s a red flag. But, if the first ingredient is whole wheat flour, that’s a totally different thing. The ingredient list can tell you a great deal. If you prefer to eat fewer additives, note how many are listed on the ingredient list. If you are trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup, it will be listed. If you want to eat more organic food, the ingredient list will identify which ingredients are organic. If you are on the lookout for allergens, the ingredient listing can help you with that, too.
Food Allergy Labeling — In compliance with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act all foods with a label sold in the US, even imported products, must inform you if the food contains one of the following major food allergens:
Milk
Egg
Fish
Shellfish – refers only to crab, lobster or shrimp which must be declared on the label (oysters, clams, mussels and scallops are not included).
Tree nuts – the specific type, such as walnuts or cashews, must be declared on the label.
Wheat
Peanuts – are more like a bean because they grow in the ground so peanuts are not considered in as part of the tree nut category.
Soybeans – soy or soya are acceptable alternative terms for soy-containing ingredients
These 8 foods account for 90% of all food allergies. Although other foods may cause a reaction in sensitive people, those ingredients are not covered under the allergy labeling law and are not required to be listed.
To comply with allergy labeling regulations, a “Contains” statement is required on the label immediately after or next to the ingredient listing. It must be in the same type and type size as the ingredient list so it is obvious to the consumer. For example: Contains milk, egg, peanuts or Contains shrimp.
The Daily Value — %DV allows you to compare the contribution of the food you are eating to the amount you should be eating for the entire day. If the %DV for calcium is 20%, you know that you are getting 20% of your total calcium for the day by eating one serving of the food. That’s the good news. The bad news is that %DV is based on a 2,000 calorie intake. Many of us eat less than that daily and some of us eat more.
%DV values are not always the most helpful part of the nutrition label, but they can be used as a general estimate to determine if a food is rich in a nutrient. You should know – if a food has 5% DV or less it is low in that nutrient. If it has 20% DV or more it is high in the nutrient. You want the %DV to be low for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. You want the %DV to be high for fiber, vitamin A and C, iron and calcium.
You don’t need to know how to calculate the %DV, the nutrition label does the math for you. The %DV column on the label will not add up to 100% because each nutrient is based on 100% of the daily requirement for that particular nutrient. Therefore, there is no sum for the label. Some nutrients, like trans fat, sugar and protein, do not have Daily Values (%DV) because there isn’t enough scientific information available to set a recommendation
Thousands of new foods are introduced each year. By knowing how to evaluate the ingredients listing, how to understand allergy labeling, and how to use the nutrition label you can decide for yourself which foods to buy and which to leave in the store. Voting with your buying power makes manufacturers produce the foods you want.
In Part 3 of this series on nutrition labels we’ll be looking at fat, cholesterol and sodium values. We hope you will come back to learn more.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 8 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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