How to Read a Food Label in 10 Seconds

I was Chief of Staff at Food Pharmer and on the founding team at Only What's Needed. Reading the back of food packs was a big part of that work.

This is the fast version I use in a shop, basket in hand.

You can skip the nutrition course. It takes 5 checks, and each one takes about 2 seconds.

Here is the exact order I use.

Step 1, skip the front (0 seconds)

The front is marketing. It's where the brand picks the words, the photos and the claims.

The back is different. The law decides what goes there, and the brand can't skip it.

So I turn it over before I read a single word up there. Words like natural, wholesome and multigrain tell me nothing about what's inside.

Train your hand to flip first, because everything below happens on the back.

Step 2, read the top 3 ingredients (2 seconds)

In India, the ingredient list must run from most to least by weight. That's an FSSAI rule, and it's the most useful rule on the pack.

It means the first 3 names are most of what you're eating.

Take a mixed fruit jam. The one I checked puts sugar 1st and the fruit 2nd.

The front of the jar shows fruit. The back puts sugar ahead of the fruit.

The masala instant noodle pack I checked lists maida first and palm oil next.

Nothing wrong with eating that now and then. Just know the block is mostly refined flour.

My rule is simple. If sugar, maida or oil sits in the top 3, it's a treat for me.

Step 3, count every name for sugar (2 seconds)

Here's the trick that fools smart people. A brand can split sugar across several names.

Each name then sits lower on the list, so each one looks small.

Names I watch for on Indian packs:

• sugar
• invert sugar syrup or invert syrup
• liquid glucose or glucose syrup
• dextrose
• fructose
• honey
• jaggery
• fruit juice concentrate

The WHO counts honey, syrups and juice concentrates as free sugars, the kind to limit. So I count them too.

Honey cornflakes are a good example. The pack I checked lists sugar, dextrose and honey.

That's 3 sweeteners in one bowl.

The glucose biscuit I checked does the same, with sugar, invert syrup and liquid glucose.

If I count 2 or more sugar names, I stop reading and put it back.

Step 4, read sugar per 100g (2 seconds)

Every pack must show its numbers per 100g, or per 100ml on a drink. Brands also show a per serving column, and they pick the serving size.

A tiny serving makes every number look small. Per 100g is the same for every pack, so it's the only column I read.

2 lines help me judge the sugar number fast:

• 5g or less per 100g is low. That's FSSAI's legal line for a low sugar claim, about a teaspoon.
• More than 22.5g per 100g is high. That's the UK's red-light line, close to a quarter of the pack.

Now the real labels:

• The mixed fruit jam I checked: about 68g sugar per 100g, so two-thirds of the jar is sugar.
• The honey cornflakes I checked: 25g per 100g, so a quarter of every bowl is sugar.
• The glucose biscuit I checked: about 28g per 100g, so more than a quarter of every biscuit is sugar.

For drinks, FSSAI's low sugar line is 2.5g per 100ml. That's about half a teaspoon in every 100ml.

Step 5, turn sodium into salt (2 seconds)

This is the check almost nobody does, and it's the one I use most.

Indian labels list sodium, sometimes in mg and sometimes in g. 970mg is 0.97g, just under 1g. The daily limit is for salt, and salt is roughly 2.5 times the sodium.

So the quick sum is sodium x 2.5 = salt.

The WHO says adults should eat less than 5g of salt a day. That's just under a teaspoon.

Back to the masala instant noodles:

• The pack I checked shows 0.97g sodium per 100g.
• The block I checked is 70g, so it carries about 0.68g of sodium.
• Times 2.5, that's about 1.7g of salt.

One block of noodles is about a third of your whole day's salt. That's before the dal, the pickle or the namkeen.

2 lines help here too.

• 0.12g sodium or less per 100g is low. That's FSSAI's legal line for a low sodium claim.
• More than 0.6g sodium per 100g is high. That's the UK red-light line, 1.5g of salt or about a quarter teaspoon.

Salty food rarely tastes salty enough to warn you. The label does it for you, if you do the sum.

What a good label looks like

This isn't about fear. Plenty of packs pass.

The peanut butter I buy lists one thing, roasted peanuts. The Greek yogurt I buy lists just milk, milk solids and cultures.

A short list with real food at the top is the best sign on a pack.

The 10-second checklist

Save this for your next grocery run:

• Turn it over and skip the front
• Read the top 3 ingredients
• Count the sugar names (2 or more is a warning)
• Sugar per 100g: 5g (about a spoon) is low, over 22.5g is high
• Sodium x 2.5 = salt, and over 0.6g sodium per 100g is high

Do it on 5 packs in your own kitchen tonight. I bet one of them surprises you.

Which one did it for you, the sugar or the salt?

Sources

Every number above comes from one of these.

• FSSAI, Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, Reg 5(2)(b) (ingredients in descending order by weight) and Reg 5(3) (nutrition information per 100g or 100ml, including total and added sugars)
• FSSAI, Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, Schedule I (low sugar: not more than 5g per 100g or 2.5g per 100ml; sugar free: not more than 0.5g; low sodium: not more than 0.12g per 100g)
• WHO, Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children, 2015 (free sugars include honey, syrups and fruit juice concentrates)
• WHO, Sodium reduction fact sheet (adults: less than 5g salt a day, about 2g sodium; salt is about 2.5 times sodium)
• UK Department of Health and Food Standards Agency, Guide to creating a front of pack nutrition label for pre-packed products, 2016 (high: sugar over 22.5g per 100g, salt over 1.5g per 100g)
• Open Food Facts label transcriptions of 4 packs sold in India, one per category, read 28 September 2026: a mixed fruit jam (sugars 68.1g per 100g), honey cornflakes (sugars 25g per 100g), a glucose biscuit (sugars 27.7g per 100g) and masala instant noodles (sodium 0.97g per 100g, 70g block)
• Peanut butter and Greek yogurt lists: pack labels as shown on Zepto product pages, read 8 September 2026