The front of a food package is marketing. The back is regulation. EU rules make the back surprisingly readable once you know its three conventions — here they are, in the order you should use them.
1. The per-100 g column is the comparison tool
EU nutrition declarations state values per 100 grams (or 100 ml), which quietly gives every product in the shop a common denominator. Portion-based claims on the front (“only 90 kcal per serving!”) depend entirely on how generous the manufacturer felt when defining a “serving”. The per-100 g column doesn’t negotiate.
Comparing two mueslis, two yogurts, two anything: ignore the front, put the two per-100 g columns side by side, done.
2. The ingredient list is sorted by weight
Ingredients appear in descending order by weight — first ingredient, biggest share. This single convention answers most label questions:
- A “hazelnut spread” listing sugar first is a sugar spread with hazelnuts.
- Wholegrain bread where wholegrain flour leads the list is wholegrain bread; one where it appears fourth is regular bread with a rustic photo.
- The further down the sugar (under any of its names — syrup, dextrose, honey), the smaller its role.
Short lists aren’t automatically virtuous, but the order never lies.
3. Three lines cover most everyday decisions
For quick everyday triage, the lines that earn their attention:
- “Of which sugars” — read alongside the WHO free-sugars budget we covered in the sugar piece. The label’s figure includes fruit-and-milk sugars too, so context matters: high “sugars” in plain yogurt reads differently than in a biscuit.
- Salt — labelled as salt (not sodium) on EU labels, which spares you the conversion arithmetic.
- Fibre — the line most shoppers never look at, and the one this site keeps campaigning for.
The ninety-second routine
Flip the pack. Per-100 g column for comparison, ingredient order for honesty, sugars-salt-fibre for the verdict. No app, no scanner, no subscription — the regulation already did the work; you just have to read its output.