Trick 3 / 5
The first three on the list
Brands choose what to show you on the front of the pack. But the ingredients on the list don’t get a say: they’re listed by quantity, from most to least. That’s the general rule, and the law allows only a few exceptions. Use it to tell whether the product has a lot, or only a little, of the ingredient you’re looking for.
The list tells you the order, not the amounts. Ingredients the pack highlights, like honey, are the exception: they show their % (trick 2).
22 ingredients to look for
The higher up the list an ingredient appears, the more of it the product contains.
- Xarope de glucose (glucose syrup) (in black)
- Dextrose (in black)
- Xarope de glucose-frutose (glucose-fructose syrup) (in black)
- Açúcar invertido (invert sugar) (in black)
- Mel (honey) (in black)
- Açúcar mascavado (muscovado sugar)
- Extrato de malte (malt extract)
- Frutose (fructose)
- Sumo concentrado de fruta (concentrated fruit juice)
- Glucose
- Açúcar amarelo (light brown sugar)
- Xarope de frutose (fructose syrup)
- Maltose
- Melaço (molasses)
- Sacarose (sucrose)
- Açúcar de coco (coconut sugar)
- Xarope de agave (agave syrup)
- Xarope de tâmaras (date syrup)
- Xarope de arroz (rice syrup)
- Xarope de ácer (maple syrup)
- Açúcar de cana (cane sugar)
- Rapadura (unrefined cane sugar)
In black: some of the most common.
These ingredients may contribute sugars or be used to sweeten. To find the product’s total sugars, check the “dos quais açúcares” (of which sugars) line in the nutrition table.
The first three give you the gist, not the whole story. But if the ingredient that made you pick up the pack isn’t one of them, there’s probably not much of it in the product…
