Food Safety Focus (177th Issue, April 2021) – Food Incident Highlight

Reading Nutrition Labels on Prepackaged Convenience Meals and Shopping Cards to Achieve Healthy Diets

During the COVID-19 pandemic, where social distancing is deemed necessary, prepackaged convenience meals provide an alternative dining option for consumers. While these processed foods are ready to be served through reheating, people may consume more than the recommended amounts of total fat, salt or sugars without being aware of the nutrition contents of the foods they are buying and eating.

Reading nutrition labels can help consumers to check the nutrient contents, which can be found on the packaging. The Centre for Food Safety has designed Shopping Cards that inform consumers if a food is high or low in total fat, salt or sugars. For example, a food containing more than 20g of total fat per 100g is considered high in total fat. Consumers may compare nutrition labels between products and crosscheck with the Shopping Cards before purchase to have a balanced diet.