How to navigate nutrition information on food labels

Nutrition is one of the major factors driving food decisions at the grocery store. However, with so many choices available and many ways of presenting food, it can be challenging, especially when you have so many other things on your mind. But there are three tools you have available on food packaging to help you make an informed decision.

When you’re comparing packaged foods for nutrition, the first things to look for on the label are:

• The new nutrition symbol on the front of many packages. It has a magnifying glass, and tells you at a glance if the food is high in saturated fat, sugars, sodium or any combination of these nutrients.
• The nutrition facts table. On the back or side of the package, it has a list of nutrients and amounts in grams or milligrams, and in per cent daily values. This can help you understand how much of a nutrient there is in the stated serving of the food: 5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot.
• The list of ingredients. This tells you what the food is made of, in descending order by weight. All of a food’s added sugars are grouped together under the word “Sugars.” This grouping helps you see if sugars were added and what their source is. 

By making good use of the three labelling tools, you can compare foods based on their nutritional content, which will help you make informed decisions about the food you buy. Learn more about how to tell what’s in your food at canada.ca/nutrition-labelling.