WHAT DOES THE NUTRITIONAL VALUES TABLE TELL US?

As consumer awareness increases, everyone has started examining the labels of food products they wish to purchase. While this growing consciousness has created a need to scrutinize labels, the situation has become complicated due to misinterpretations. Due to both manufacturers lacking sufficient knowledge and consumers' incorrect interpretations, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock updated the "Food Labelling and Consumer Information Regulation" in January 2017 and published a "Guide on Food Labelling and Consumer Information Regulation" to address unclear situations in the regulation. As stated in the news reports about the guide and regulation that have been widely discussed since their media coverage, nutrition declaration has now become mandatory on labels.

As Nanolab Laboratory Group, we provide fully accredited services in nutrition declaration. The mandatory information in nutrition declaration includes energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars, salt/sodium. Based on general questions received at our laboratory, it appears that nutrition declaration, analysis methods and working standards are not well understood.

Let us examine one by one the information that must be reported in nutrition declaration. In Annex 10 of the labelling regulation, it is presented which nutrients are evaluated as energy in the human body and how much energy they provide to metabolism. In this table, the 2 kcal value corresponding to fibre value draws our attention. The nutrient referred to as fibre actually passes as dietary fibre in food literature. Many analysis and calculation errors are made in the market by evaluating fibre value as cellulose. Although dietary fibre has a complex definition, it can be summarized as the sum of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. This clearly demonstrates that using cellulose instead of dietary fibre in energy calculation is an incorrect approach. Particularly in milk and dairy products, where dietary fibre does not exist, there is no need for dietary fibre analysis and declaration, whereas in plant-based food products it must absolutely be performed and the correct energy value must be declared to consumers. Fat is found in low amounts, mainly in fresh fruits and vegetables and their products. A formula has been devised for values found in low amounts in nutrition declaration and according to the guide, nutrient values such as protein, fat and sugars found below 0.5% must be declared as 0g or <0.5g. If this situation occurs in fat values, saturated fat analysis can be declared as 0g. Due to the requirement of 5g fat to conduct saturated fat analysis, it is difficult to obtain healthy results in products containing such low fat. However, since fat value is one of the most important inputs in energy calculation, this analysis must be performed in the laboratory and reported as not detected. Carbohydrate/energy value calculation is performed according to the "Atwater" method mentioned in article publications of the "Food and Agriculture Organization". Carbohydrate value is not determined directly by analysis. Taking the entire product as 100%, it is calculated by subtracting the values of moisture, ash, fat, protein and dietary fibre.

As processing steps and inputs increase in an analysis, the potential for error also increases. In results obtained by performing so many analyses, the measurement uncertainty (± value) coming separately from each analysis becomes high.

Therefore, the institution or personnel performing the analysis must be experienced and expert in the field. Considering that sugars are a sub-group parameter of carbohydrates, it is expected that the sugar value is equal to or lower than the carbohydrate value. When all these uncertainties are taken into account, sugar analysis results may be higher than the carbohydrate value. When making label declarations, tables should be updated taking into account these measurement uncertainties. The question most frequently asked to us concerns salt determination. Under normal conditions, salt determination is conducted titrimetrically by detecting "chloride amount" and then extending to salt (NaCl) equivalent. However, according to the labelling regulation, "sodium amount" must be detected and extended using the same method. This creates the perception that there is salt in salt-free products. The purpose of conducting the work in this manner in label declarations is to account for the sodium amount coming from the product's components. These sources may contain different salts such as sodium ascorbate, sodium bicarbonate and monosodium glutamate. In calculating salt from sodium amount, since the molecular weight of sodium is 22.99 and the molecular weight of chloride is 35.45, when extending sodium the value must be converted to a percentage. Following this conversion, the value is multiplied by 2.5 according to the ratio of molecular weights to calculate the percentage salt amount.