Food labels can help you make better food choices. The “Ingredient List” identifies the ingredients in the product from largest to smallest amount. For example, if the term “whole wheat” appears first in the list, then whole wheat makes up the largest part of the product. To find out more, look at the Nutrition Facts table. It tells you how many calories, nutrients, and fibre is in the food based on the specific serving size found at the top of the “Nutrition Facts” chart.

To learn more about food labels visit Health Canada - Nutrition Labels

The % Daily Value tells you if there is a little or a lot of a nutrient in the serving size.

Choose foods with a % Daily Value of 5% or less for fat, cholesterol, and sodium and 10% or less for saturated and trans fat.

Choose foods with a higher % Daily Value (greater than 15%) for fibre, vitamins, and minerals.

Key Reference:
Health Canada. (2003). Nutrition labelling. Retrieved March 20, 2007, from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/index_e.html