Treat a food claim as a defined statement

Read beyond the badge

Food claims on packaging are defined statements, not miniature reviews of the entire product. In the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 governs nutrition and health claims in commercial communication. It requires claims to meet conditions and prohibits claims that are false, ambiguous, or misleading. That makes the exact words worth reading, especially when a front-of-pack badge first catches your eye.

Nutrition claims describe a nutritional property. Examples include “source of fibre,” “high protein,” “reduced salt,” “low fat,” or “no added sugars.” The regulation and its annex set the conditions for using them. Similar-looking wording can refer to different legal concepts, so do not treat “sugar-free” as interchangeable with “no added sugars,” or “reduced” as a vague promise that everything about the product has changed.

Health claims sit under a separate part of the same framework and must use authorised wording and conditions. A package can still contain required information that gives the claim context. Read the claim without adding a medical interpretation that the label does not make. The product remains a food with a recipe, a nutrition declaration, a portion, and instructions for use.

Turn the pack over after reading the front. Compare the nutrition declaration with a close alternative on the per-100-gram or per-100-millilitre basis. Then read the ingredient list, which generally runs in descending order by weight at manufacture. A product may legitimately make one claim while differing from another product in salt, sugars, fat, protein, ingredients, price, or format. The claim tells you where to look; it does not end the comparison.

Check qualifications printed near the statement. A claim may need additional wording, and some packaging uses asterisks that point to a condition or comparison. Read the small print rather than assuming it is decorative. If the product needs preparation, find out whether the table and claim refer to the food as sold or as prepared.

Use the claim for a focused shopping question. If you want to compare two crackers with a reduced-salt statement, inspect the salt line and the rest of the label. If the claim does not matter to the purchase, there is no need to make it the centre of the decision. Current packaging is the reliable source because recipes and marketing can change.

Compare the claim with the legal name and the nearby qualification. A product can state a valid feature while still being a different format from the alternative beside it: concentrated versus ready-made, plain versus flavoured, or snack-sized versus family-sized. Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 is the primary source for claim conditions, while Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 supplies the wider label framework. Reading both sides of the pack gives the claim its proper scope without asking it to answer every question about a purchase.

Compare the claim with the legal name and the nearby qualification. A product can state a valid feature while still being a different format from the alternative beside it: concentrated versus ready-made, plain versus flavoured, or snack-sized versus family-sized. Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 is the primary source for claim conditions, while Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 supplies the wider label framework. Reading both sides of the pack gives the claim its proper scope without asking it to answer every question about a purchase.

Compare the claim with the legal name and the nearby qualification. A product can state a valid feature while still being a different format from the alternative beside it: concentrated versus ready-made, plain versus flavoured, or snack-sized versus family-sized. Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 is the primary source for claim conditions, while Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 supplies the wider label framework. Reading both sides of the pack gives the claim its proper scope without asking it to answer every question about a purchase.