3 Presenting the data on the packaging
When food is fried, it is very difficult to know how much fat is absorbed in the frying process. You would miss this by just analysing the food itself before it was fried. So laboratory analysis is needed for the fat content.
The nutritional content of most other foods can be determined from data tables. Of course, the numbers can never be absolutely accurate. For example, one pack of sandwiches might contain slightly more lettuce, or an extra slice of tomato, compared with another pack. Or the amount of protein in the flour used to make the bread might vary slightly. So, if you checked one pack of sandwiches against another, you might find up to a 10% variation from the numbers given on the pack.
Look at the food labels which you have collected. You will notice that the nutritional information is given both per portion (per bar, serving, pot, pack, etc.) and per 100 g (Figure 5).
Activity 2 Benefits of having more detailed information
Allow approximately 10 minutes.
Answer the following questions.
- Do you think it is useful to have two columns of information i.e. per 100 g and per serving?
- Does it help you personally in your choice of foods?
Write your answers in the box below. Click ‘Save’ when you are satisfied with what you have written.
OpenLearn - The science of nutrition and healthy eating
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.