How to read Labels: Introduction to Ingredients List
Ingredients List must be printed on every prepacked food's label. It is a complete list of all the ingredients used in the product. It includes additives and ingredients that could cause hypersensitivity. This is to help those with allergies or food intolerances to understand what is in the food product and whether it is product that they can consume (i.e. whether it contains ingredients that might cause allergic reactions.
Ingredients list is listed in descending order based on the weight of the ingredients used in the food product.
Sometimes Food Manufacturers will declare on the food labels that they may contain allergens by including the phrases like:
'contains ____', 'may contain ____'
'made in a facility that processes ___'
Some ingredients that can cause hypersensitivity in individuals include:
Cereals containing gluten
Crustacean and crustacean products
Eggs and Egg products
Fish and Fish products
Peanuts, soybeans and their products
Milk and milk products (lactose)
Tree Nuts and nut products
Sulphites
Most of the time when Nutrition Labels are not available, you can use the ingredients list to determine whether the product is sweet or salty. Using the photo above as an example and how the ingredient list is listed, you can guess that the product is sweet (i.e. the first ingredient in the ingredients list is Corn Syrup.