There is a useful mental split to make in a supermarket. Some of the words on a package mean nothing — artisan, wholesome, goodness. Others are defined in law, down to the gram, and a manufacturer who prints them without hitting the number is breaking the law rather than exaggerating.
The defined ones
Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 sets the conditions. A selection, quoted from the Annex rather than paraphrased:
| Claim | Condition |
|---|---|
| Source of fibre | at least 3 g per 100 g, or 1.5 g per 100 kcal |
| High fibre | at least 6 g per 100 g, or 3 g per 100 kcal |
| Source of protein | at least 12% of the energy comes from protein |
| High protein | at least 20% of the energy comes from protein |
| Low fat | no more than 3 g per 100 g (1.5 g per 100 ml for liquids) |
| Low sugars | no more than 5 g per 100 g (2.5 g per 100 ml) |
| Sugars-free | no more than 0.5 g per 100 g or 100 ml |
| Low sodium/salt | no more than 0.12 g sodium per 100 g |
| Very low sodium/salt | no more than 0.04 g sodium per 100 g |
Two things jump out of that table.
“High” is a low bar
Six grams of fibre per 100 g earns the phrase high in fibre. That is a real threshold, and it is also less than half what plain oats or most pulses carry. A cereal that clears 6 g and a cereal that carries 15 g get the same three words on the front of the box.
The same goes the other way for protein. High protein means a fifth of the energy comes from protein — which a pot of plain yoghurt clears without any help, and which a protein bar clears while also carrying the sugar of a chocolate bar. The claim is about proportion, not about quantity, and never about the rest of the product.
A claim tells you the food passed one test. It says nothing about the tests it was not given.
“Low fat” is about volume, not virtue
Low fat is fixed at 3 g per 100 g. It is a genuine constraint on the fat, and it constrains nothing else — a low-fat product is free to carry any amount of sugar, salt or refined starch it likes. That is not a loophole; it is simply what the claim was written to certify.
This is where the back-of-pack table earns its keep. Every EU pack carries energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt per 100 g, and per 100 g is the only figure that lets you compare two brands honestly. Per-portion columns are optional extras, and the portion is chosen by the manufacturer.
Vitamins and minerals
Source of a vitamin or mineral means the food contains at least a “significant amount” as defined in the labelling rules — in practice 15% of the reference intake per 100 g for most foods. High in means at least twice that. So a drink advertising six vitamins may carry a genuinely useful dose of each, or the smallest amount that clears the line, and the claim itself does not distinguish.
The practical version
Three habits cover most of it:
- Read the per-100 g column, never the front of the pack.
- Treat a claim as a pass/fail on one nutrient, not a verdict on the food.
- When two products both carry the same claim, the numbers behind it will usually differ by a lot — and that difference is the only thing worth choosing between.
