Transcript

AUDREY BROWN

Today, we’re going to be looking at food labels. There is a legal requirement for labels to be put on manufactured food, so that people know what they’re eating. But how much do people actually look at the labels?

SPEAKER 1

I do sometimes, depending on what it is, or depending on the day, if I’m thinking-- if I’ve had too much of one type of thing, I might try and look at the calories and go, OK, actually, there’s too much fat in this or too much salt in it. It’s particularly salt and sugar that I look at.

SPEAKER 2

I’m quite careful about cereals, because of the sugar content in them. I tend to look at yoghurts quite carefully. Anything that’s got sugar in them, I do look at.

SPEAKER 1

When I’m buying it, you know, in the supermarket, yeah, I’ll look at the labels, look at the nutritional value and stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER 3

I tend not to buy things which I don’t know much about. Like, I buy fruit, veg, cheese, and ham and-- you know, raw stuff, not necessarily processed stuffed.

SPEAKER 4

I have to look at labels, because I am intolerant to wheat and gluten. So I’m always checking to make sure that it’s not going to make me ill.

SPEAKER 3

No. [LAUGHS]

SPEAKER 5

I only look at the calories in it, too, but I don’t really look at salt or artificial sweeteners or anything.

SPEAKER 6

Yeah, I always look at the label, just because I’m vegetarian. So I always make sure that it’s suitable for vegetarians. And I usually look at the nutritional values, to make sure it’s not too much sugar, not too much fat. And also low-calorie items I usually go for, as well.

SPEAKER 7

Salt--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

SPEAKER 8

And sugar.

SPEAKER 7

Yeah. Yeah, but normal fats, don’t think they’re a problem. But things like sugar and salt, yeah, I look at.

SPEAKER 4

I can’t say that I pay much attention to the nutritional information. I assume, if I’m eating anything outside of the house, it’s probably not that good for me, because I don’t really know what goes into it. So that’s the way I tend to go ahead, when I eat.

AUDREY BROWN

You can learn a lot about food by looking at the label. The label should tell you how much energy the food will provide and how much fat, protein, and carbohydrate there are in 100 grammes, and also in one portion. Also included is the amount of salt, because that can be linked to high blood pressure, and the amount of fibre, which helps the food move along the digestive system. Then there’s information about the ingredients in the food, for people who may need to avoid specific items like eggs, milk, nuts, etc, because of intolerance or allergy. So there is a lot that you can learn from a food label.