How to read a kids' nutrition label

Carrington & Finch

A note for parents

How to read a kids' nutrition label

Five minutes that will change what you buy — including, possibly, whether you buy ours.

We wrote this guide knowing it might cost us sales. A parent who reads labels properly is a harder parent to sell to. We decided we would rather have that parent.

Take any tin in your kitchen and follow along.

Step one

Ignore the front. Turn it around.

The front of a pack is designed by a marketing team. The back is constrained by law. Only one of them is obliged to tell you the truth, so start there.

Step two

Count the sugars — all of their names.

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. So a manufacturer who wants sugar to appear lower down has a simple trick: split it into several different sugars, each small enough to sit further down the list.

Watch for: malt extract, liquid glucose, maltodextrin, invert syrup, cane solids, fruit-juice concentrate, dextrose, corn syrup solids. Add them together in your head. That is the real position of sugar on the label.

Step three

Look for what refuses to be specific.

“Proprietary blend.” “Permitted flavours.” “Nutrient premix.” These are legal, and they are also a decision — a decision that you should not know the amounts.

There is only one reason to hide a number: it is not impressive enough to show. An ingredient present in a meaningful amount is always named with that amount, because it is a selling point.

Step four

Check whether the amount matches the promise.

A pack may shout about an ingredient that is present in a trace. The ingredient is real; the quantity is theatre. If a pack names an ingredient on the front but not its amount on the back, treat the front as decoration.

Step five

Read the claims like a lawyer would.

Notice the difference between “contains calcium, which supports bone health” and “makes bones stronger.” The first describes a nutrient. The second makes a promise about your child — and is usually carefully worded to imply more than it says.

Be most careful with the big three: height, brains, and immunity. These are the three things every parent worries about, which is exactly why they are the three most often implied and least often proven.

Step six

Ask where it was made — and whether they will tell you.

Country of origin, and whether the company will say anything specific about the source. Vagueness about origin is itself information.

Now do it to ours.

Everything above applies to us too. Our ingredients are printed with their amounts, we use no proprietary blends, we say “no refined sugar” rather than “sugar-free” because there is honey and lactose in the pouch — and we make no claims about height, brains or immunity at all. If we ever fail this test, hold us to it.

Read our label — every ingredient Or reserve a founding pouch · free, no payment

What we test → How we decide → Where it comes from →

Made in Australia. Made with certified-organic Australian A2 milk.
For children aged 6 years and above only · Not for infants under 12 months. Contains MILK.