Welcome to the course
Welcome to ‘Understanding food labels’, a European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food online course produced by the University of Reading and Aarhus University. Why this course? The information …
Course: Understanding Food Labels
The dangers of unclear labels
Food producers have a duty to their customers to inform them about what the product contains because unwitting consumption of some ingredients can have fatal consequences. Labels in the news …
What Information Is on a Food Label?
Consumers are exposed to a wide variety of food products in their everyday life. Most carry information about what they contain, where and how they were produced, and how best …
Reflecting my values
Watch the video to understand the thought process between choosing a premium and basic product, using a lasagne ready meal as an example. Do you buy ready meals or another …
What’s my food made of?
Watch this video to hear how ingredients are presented on a label using white and wholemeal bread as an example. Do you compare products like on the video? Does the …
What’s next?
This week we’ve discovered how to find out what’s in your food and how to make effective use of the nutrition declaration to help you work out the levels of …
What’s next?
This week we’ve looked at the wide variety of categories of information food labels contain and what they tell you. We’ve also discovered what they don’t say and what that …
Understanding Food Labels: Animal Welfare
Did you know that the terms ‘farm assured’, ‘locally sourced’, and ‘farm fresh’ don’t always mean higher welfare standards for the animals? Choosing the most welfare-friendly product in dairy or …
Case study: What’s in our bread?
Bread is an important staple food that has been part of our diet for tens of thousands of years. Across the globe, it has achieved a level of quality, affordability …
The dark side of additives and the move towards ‘clean labels’
Have you ever wondered why your food label looks like text taken from a science book? The answer is: additives. Additives have many different roles in our food. Some are …
Trusting and using health claims
As we have seen in the last few Steps, health claims on food products can only be used to highlight scientifically proven health benefits associated with consuming those foods. But, …
Case study: ‘probiotics’ and impossible burgers
We heard, in the previous Step that the EU Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims 1994/2006 is in place to prevent the inappropriate use of nutritional and health claims by …
Using ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labels effectively
As you saw in Step 1.7, there is widespread confusion around the use of date labelling on food. The requirement to include ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates on all …
How do labels help you to make choices?
Watch this video to understand the decision-making processes shoppers go through when choosing between items. How do you decide what product to choose? Share your thoughts in the discussion area …