Gloucestershire Trading Standards Service

Consumer Information
		Food Claims Ever felt bombarded by the many different labelling terms presented on food products when shopping? With such an abundance of different foods on the market, it is easy to get confused especially when you are trying to buy healthier alternatives for you and your family. Here is our guide to help you try and make some sense of the most popular seen claims in the supermarket:
		Reduced & Low Fat To claim that a product is reduced fat, the amount of fat must be at least 25% lower than the standard version of the same brand. The standard brand version might be high in fat and energy in the first place, so it could mean that the 'reduced fat' option still has higher amounts than other brands. Currently there is no legal definition of ‘low fat’, although the law states that food labels must not mislead.
		No Added Sugar You might for example, find this statement on a large range of soft drinks and it means exactly what it says. However, look out for the presence of artificial sweeteners like aspartame or saccharin and take care to control the amount of sweeteners you give to young children. Remember sugars might be naturally present in such products, just not added intentionally.
		Controlled Sugar, Salt, Fat Often seen on a range of prepacked food, but what does it mean? The short answer is we really don’t know! Legally there are no definitions for this term. One leading manufacturer who makes use of this phrase has stated its meaning to be that a product would contain no more sugar, salt or fat than products of a similar type.
		Light or Lite The law has yet to define what either of these terms actually mean and you might think that a food branded with these words has less fat or fewer calories than other foods. You might be surprised to learn how little difference there is between foods that carry this claim and those that choose not to. Our advice is... look at the whole label and compare products to get the full picture.