Reading Nutrition Labels UK: A Simple Guide for 2026
Master UK nutrition labels with our complete guide. Learn the traffic light system, reference intakes, per 100g vs per serving, and how to spot hidden sugars.
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Reading Nutrition Labels UK: A Simple Guide for 2026
Standing in the supermarket aisle, you flip over a packet and find yourself staring at a grid of numbers, percentages, and coloured boxes. Sound familiar? You're not alone. Despite nutrition labels being designed to help us make informed choices, many people find them confusing or simply ignore them altogether.
Learning to read nutrition labels properly is one of the most practical skills for taking control of your health. Whether you're managing a specific condition, watching your sodium intake, or simply trying to eat more mindfully, these labels contain valuable information that can guide your decisions. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about reading nutrition labels in the UK, from understanding the traffic light system to spotting hidden sugars that manufacturers would rather you didn't notice.
Understanding the UK Traffic Light System
The front-of-pack traffic light labelling system is one of the UK's most recognisable nutrition tools. Introduced to help shoppers make quick, informed decisions, it uses red, amber, and green colours to indicate whether a food is high, medium, or low in fat, saturated fat, sugars, and salt.
Each nutrient is assessed per portion, and the colour coding works exactly as you'd expect from traffic lights. Green means you're good to go – the food is low in that nutrient. Amber suggests caution – it's neither high nor low, so it's fine most of the time but worth being mindful of. Red means stop and think – the food is high in that nutrient, which doesn't mean you can't eat it, but you should be aware of how much and how often.
It's worth noting that not all foods carry traffic light labels. While many major retailers and manufacturers use them voluntarily, they're not legally required on all products. You'll find them most commonly on supermarket own-brand items and processed foods.
What the Colours Actually Mean
The thresholds for each colour are based on amounts per 100g or per portion, whichever is used on the label. Here's what you're looking at:
- Green (low) — Fat: 3g or less per 100g; Saturated fat: 1.5g or less per 100g; Sugars: 5g or less per 100g; Salt: 0.3g or less per 100g
- Amber (medium) — Falls between the green and red thresholds
- Red (high) — Fat: more than 17.5g per 100g; Saturated fat: more than 5g per 100g; Sugars: more than 22.5g per 100g; Salt: more than 1.5g per 100g
How to Use Traffic Lights When Shopping
The key is to look at the overall pattern rather than fixating on individual reds. A product with mostly greens and ambers is generally a healthier choice than one with multiple reds. However, context matters enormously.
For instance, olive oil will show red for fat content, but it's a healthy fat that forms part of the Mediterranean diet. Similarly, natural yoghurt might show amber or red for sugars due to naturally occurring lactose, which isn't the same concern as added sugars. Use the traffic lights as a starting point for comparison between similar products, rather than as absolute rules.
Decoding Reference Intakes on Nutrition Labels
Alongside or below the traffic lights, you'll often see percentages. These show how much of your Reference Intake (RI) a serving of the food provides. Reference Intakes replaced the older Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) and represent the approximate amount of energy and nutrients an average adult should consume daily.
The current UK Reference Intakes for adults are: 2,000 kcal (energy), 70g fat, 20g saturated fat, 260g carbohydrates, 90g total sugars, 50g protein, and 6g salt. These are based on an average adult with moderate activity levels, which means they won't be perfect for everyone.
If you're particularly active, pregnant, elderly, or have specific health conditions, your individual requirements will differ. This is where personalised nutrition becomes valuable, but the RIs still provide a useful benchmark for comparison shopping.
Making Sense of the Percentages
When a label says a serving provides '15% of your RI for salt', it means that one portion contains 15% of the 6g maximum recommended daily intake. If you eat the whole packet and it contains four servings, you'd be consuming 60% of your daily salt allowance in one go.
A helpful rule of thumb: if a food provides more than 20% of the RI for a nutrient per serving, it's considered high in that nutrient. Less than 5% is considered low. This can help you quickly assess whether a food fits into your daily eating pattern.
Per 100g vs Per Serving: Why Both Matter
One of the most important skills in reading nutrition labels UK guidelines is understanding the difference between per 100g and per serving information. Many people only look at the per serving column, which can be misleading if the suggested serving size is unrealistic.
The per 100g column is standardised, making it perfect for comparing different products directly. Want to know which breakfast cereal has less sugar? Compare the per 100g figures, not the per serving amounts, because serving sizes vary wildly between brands and products.
The per serving column tells you what you'll actually consume if you stick to the manufacturer's suggested portion. However, these suggestions can be surprisingly small. A serving of cereal might be listed as 30g – about three tablespoons – when most people pour significantly more. A serving of crisps might be half a small bag, even though most people eat the whole thing.
- Use per 100g — When comparing different brands or products to find the healthiest option
- Use per serving — When planning your meal and working out what you'll actually eat, but be realistic about portion sizes
- Check the serving size — Always look at what the manufacturer considers one serving. It's often printed in grams and may also include a household measure like 'two biscuits' or '20g (one-third of a pot)'
- Do the maths — If you know you'll eat the whole packet, multiply the per serving values by the number of servings. This reality check can be eye-opening
Spotting Hidden Sugars in Food Labels
Sugar is listed in the carbohydrates section of nutrition labels, but understanding what you're looking at requires a bit more knowledge. The 'total sugars' figure includes both naturally occurring sugars (like those in fruit, vegetables, and milk) and added sugars (those put in during manufacturing).
UK labels don't currently separate these two types, though some manufacturers voluntarily include an 'of which added sugars' line. This distinction matters because naturally occurring sugars come packaged with fibre, vitamins, and minerals, while added sugars provide empty calories.
Manufacturers use over 50 different names for added sugars, and they're not always obvious. The ingredients list is your friend here – ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so if sugar appears in the first few ingredients, the product is high in added sugar.
Common Names for Hidden Sugars
When scanning ingredient lists, watch out for these sugar aliases:
- Obvious sugars — Glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, lactose
- Syrups — Corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, golden syrup, maple syrup, agave syrup, rice syrup, malt syrup
- 'Natural' sugars — Honey, fruit juice concentrate, coconut sugar, date syrup, molasses
- Technical names — Maltodextrin, dextrin, caramel, carob syrup, glucose solids
How Much Sugar Is Too Much?
The NHS recommends that free sugars (added sugars plus those in honey, syrups, and fruit juices) should make up no more than 5% of your daily energy intake. For adults, that's roughly 30g or seven sugar cubes per day.
To put this in context, a single can of cola typically contains around 35g of sugar – already exceeding the daily recommendation. A 'healthy' fruit smoothie can easily contain 30-40g, mostly from the concentrated fruit juice. Even foods marketed as healthy, like cereal bars, low-fat yoghurts, and granola, can be sugar bombs in disguise. Always check the label rather than relying on health claims on the front of pack.
Reading Labels When You Have Specific Dietary Needs
If you're managing a health condition, taking medication, or following a specific diet, nutrition labels become even more critical. The standard traffic light system and reference intakes are designed for the general population, but your needs may be quite different.
For example, if you're taking certain blood pressure medications like ACE inhibitors, you may need to monitor potassium intake carefully. Standard labels show sodium but not always potassium. If you have coeliac disease, you'll be scanning for allergen declarations and looking beyond the obvious grains. Those on blood thinners need to track vitamin K, which isn't listed on standard labels.
This is where the complexity of nutrition labels reveals its limitations. While they're helpful for general guidance, they weren't designed for the nuanced needs of people managing health conditions alongside their diet.
Key Label Sections for Different Conditions
- Diabetes management — Focus on total carbohydrates and fibre content; look for foods with at least 3g fibre per serving and lower glycaemic impact
- Heart health — Prioritise saturated fat and salt content; check for trans fats in the ingredients list (partially hydrogenated oils)
- Kidney disease — Monitor protein, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus levels, though the latter two aren't always clearly labelled
- Coeliac disease — Check the allergen box for wheat, barley, rye, and oats (unless certified gluten-free); look for the Crossed Grain symbol
- Food allergies — Always read the allergen information box and the 'may contain' warnings; check every time you buy as recipes can change
How FreshPlate Simplifies Nutrition Label Reading
While becoming fluent in reading nutrition labels is a valuable skill, it can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially when you're juggling health conditions, medications, and dietary preferences. This is exactly why FreshPlate was created.
Our app takes the complexity out of nutrition management by automatically cross-referencing your medications, health conditions, and dietary requirements with thousands of ingredients and their nutritional profiles. Instead of standing in the supermarket aisle trying to work out whether a food is suitable, FreshPlate builds personalised recipes that already take your needs into account.
When you tell FreshPlate about your health profile, our algorithm considers factors that wouldn't appear on a standard nutrition label – like medication interactions, condition-specific nutrient needs, and ingredient sensitivities. We do the label-reading work for you, translating complex nutritional data into simple meal plans that support your health goals without requiring you to become a nutrition expert.
That said, understanding nutrition labels remains important for making on-the-spot decisions and becoming a more informed eater. Think of label-reading skills and FreshPlate as complementary tools – one for when you're shopping independently, the other for removing the daily mental load of planning meals that truly work for your body.
Frequently asked questions
What does per 100g mean on nutrition labels UK?
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Per 100g shows the nutritional content in a standardised amount, making it easy to compare different products directly. This is different from 'per serving' which shows the nutrients in the manufacturer's suggested portion size, which can vary significantly between brands.
How do I know if a food is high in sugar UK?
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On UK traffic light labels, red means high sugar (more than 22.5g per 100g or more than 27g per portion). Check the ingredients list too – if sugar or its many aliases appear in the first three ingredients, the product is high in added sugar.
Are traffic light labels mandatory in the UK?
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No, traffic light labels are voluntary in the UK. Many major retailers and manufacturers use them, but they're not legally required. However, nutrition information panels showing energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, and salt are mandatory on most pre-packed foods.
What is the difference between total sugars and free sugars?
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Total sugars include all sugars in a food – both naturally occurring (in fruit, vegetables, milk) and added sugars. Free sugars are those added during manufacturing plus sugars in honey, syrups, and fruit juices. UK labels show total sugars but don't always separate out free sugars, which are the ones we should limit.
How accurate are serving sizes on food labels?
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Serving sizes are set by manufacturers and can be unrealistically small, making products appear healthier per serving than they actually are when you eat a typical portion. Always check the serving size in grams and compare it to what you'd actually eat, then adjust the nutritional values accordingly.
Sources
- NHS — Food labels guidance and reference intakes
- British Heart Foundation — Understanding nutrition labels and traffic light colours
- NHS — Sugar: the facts about free sugars and daily recommendations
- Food Standards Agency — Guide to creating a front of pack (FoP) nutrition label for pre-packed products
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