Nutrition label game: the sugar, salt and fat in what you eat
A game for learning to read the nutrition table on packaging, which almost nobody looks at and almost nobody understands. Labels drawn like the ones in the supermarket appear, from 24 generic products — cola, cereal, biscuits, yoghurts, crisps, chickpeas, cheese — with typical values, and a question: which has more sugar, how many sugar cubes are in a can, how many grams of salt are in a serving, or whether a product is high, medium or low in fat by traffic-light labelling. On hard comes the most common trap: whatever has the most sugar per 100 grams is not always what gives you the most sugar, because it depends on how much you eat.
Biology · Primary, Secondary
The table gives values per 100 g or 100 ml, but a can holds 330 ml and a spoonful of chocolate spread is 15 g. Converting one to the other — value per serving = value × grams / 100 — is the calculation that turns the label into useful information, and the game repeats it until it becomes automatic.
Thirty-five grams of sugar means nothing to anyone; nine sugar cubes does. Turning grams into 4 g cubes is the fastest way for a child to grasp what is in a can of fizzy drink or a sweetened yoghurt.
Traffic-light labelling gives clear per-100 g thresholds for sugar, fat, saturates and salt, halved for drinks. With it, comparing two products stops being a hunch and becomes a reading: high, medium or low.
"The question: which gives you more sugar, a spoonful of chocolate spread or a glass of packaged orange juice? The spread has 56 g of sugar per 100 g and the juice only 9, so almost everyone picks the spread. But the spoonful is 15 g, about 8 g of sugar, and the glass is 200 ml, 18 g. The juice wins, and the explanation shows both calculations."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Gather five packs from home: a fizzy drink, a cereal, a yoghurt, some biscuits and something savoury.
Have them order the five from most to least sugar per 100 g, just by reading the table.
Then work out the sugar in one serving of each and order them again: the order often changes.
Finally, put the sugar cubes for each serving on a plate.
If you like Read the Label, these activities work similar skills:
For the theory: macronutrients, vitamins, the Mediterranean diet and healthy eating, with an explanation for every answer.
Before going to the supermarket, choose between two similar products by reading the label: two cereals, two breads or two yoghurts.
Many packs also carry a summary score or colour code. Comparing it with what the table says is a good critical reading exercise.
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