How to read a food label

Among the many products, packages often very similar and endorsements written in lower case, in front of the supermarket shelves is more likely to be confused.

That sign that promises an offer will be torn up so convenient? To know there is only one way: to compare and choose better quality food or better suited to our needs by learning to read the labels on the packages.

Useful guides explaining all you need to know: present by law since 1982, in addition to the name of what we are to buy list ingredients, quantities, expiration data producing company, bar code and type of packaging material. Here, in this guide how to read a food label. Enjoy the reading.

• Ingredients. Often in front of a long list of raw materials, sometimes dense scientific names, one is tempted to give up, do not read and trust what is depicted in the image of the product. But, with some small measure, this list becomes the most valuable ally of a consumer. It is important to first know that the ingredients are written in order of quantity: the first will be then the elements present in greater numbers in the product. You’re buying a juice to fishing, and you are undecided between two brands?
• Check the list of ingredients: if one of them written before the fruit appears, it means that there is more in there than in the other fisheries. Done this first check, make sure that no remains of the amount of additives present in the product: usually indicated with the letter E followed by numbers, they are substances such as colorants or flavorings that can be both artificial and natural. The less you are, the more your juice will be of better quality.
• Quantity and deadline. Two other useful elements are provided in the labels by an indication of the amount – net that is drained, if it is a product that contains liquids – and the expiry date. The latter, besides being important to schedule your purchases, can also give you an idea of what is natural food: the more distant the maturity date, the more likely that the product is packed with preservatives to do last longer.
• A compromise that does not always worth it. Instead the first indicator, the amount, allowing us to see if a massive pack and maybe winning a product corresponds to the actual size: how many times we happened to open a large box, perhaps packaged cakes, and find that inside there n ‘it is enough for a maximum of two people?