There are a few things to be aware of when working out how healthy food is for your family.
Lots of packaged foods come with colour-coded labels that show how much fat, sugar and salt there is at a glance. Red means there’s a lot, amber means there’s a moderate amount, and green means there’s a little.
To make healthier meal choices, try to choose more green and amber labels, and fewer reds.
If there’s no colour-coded label, look for the nutrition information per 100g instead. The NHS guidelines below will help you tell if a food is high in fat, salt or sugar.
| High levels (per 100g) | Low levels (per 100g) | |
| Total fat | More than 17.5g | 3g or less |
| Saturated fat | More than 5g | 1.5g or less |
| Sugars | More than 22.5g of total sugars | 5g or less of total sugars |
| Salt | More than 1.5g | 0.3g salt or less |
This advice was written by our experienced Parent Talk coaches. Parent Talk is a free online service for parents and carers, provided by the charity Action for Children. For more advice, message our parenting coaches with our online chat.
