Reading Food Product Labels Part 3 – Chameleons

You’ve learned how to read food labels.

You’ve learned how to read ingredients lists.

You’re halfway towards being a know-it-all! (I’ll just call you a savvy customer HURHURHUR).

The third piece of the puzzle would be to learn about the chameleons that are the forms certain ingredients can take in ingredients lists, waiting to strike at the unsuspecting consumer.

In the previous article, I covered how sugar can be in an ingredients list and take on many different names. If you are looking for certain ingredients, or looking to avoid them, it would be useful for you to have a working knowledge of the alternate aliases of these ingredients.

Today’s will be a short article, with brief primers on what function each macro nutrient (fats, proteins and carbohydrates) does in a food, and a helpful table of some aliases that sneaky food manufacturers use. This article can be used as a handy list to be referred to while sassily sashaying down the aisles of your local supermarket. Go on, take a screenshot of the tables (or better yet, favourite my site HEHE).

4 types of sugar in one ingredients list: Hello, police?!?!?!?!

Know Thy Nutrients

I won’t be covering the nitty gritty nutritional aspect of each of the macronutrients in this article, as my goal here today is simply to show you what to look out for in an ingredients list.

Here goes, a highly condensed and layman’s explanation of what functions fats, proteins and carbohydrates serve in food products, and their names:

Fats

Fats are generally used in foods to bolster texture, mouth feel and flavour (think of that creamy Nutella, unctuous Raclette cheese or silky-smooth peanut butter). They are also sometimes used as stabilisers and emulsifiers to prevent the separation of water and oil- based ingredients (such as in peanut butter).

Names of Common Ingredients(Non-exhaustive) That Contribute Fat

Shortening (similar to margarine)

Butter/other ingredients that end with butter eg. Peanut butter, hazelnut butter etc)

Oils (vegetable oils, seed oils)

Oleins (Usually from palm)

Partially/fully hydrogenated oils

Margarine

Ghee

Vegetable fat

Cocoa Butter

Dairy Creams (Single, Double, Triple and Sour Creams)

Crème Fraiche (Basically French sour cream)

Proteins

Besides providing protein (thank you Captain Obvious!), protein-containing ingredients are sometimes added to thicken liquid-ish food products (think yoghurt!). Other times, they may also be used in man-made meat alternatives for their textural properties.

Some proteins in the form of amino acids may be added for flavour enhancement purposes

Of course, for all you gym bros out there, I have included protein powders as well, listing some of the most common proteins out there (I have pointed out vegan options!)

Names of Common Ingredients (Non-exhaustive) That Contribute Protein

Whey protein concentrate/isolate

Milk Solids (fancy speak for milk powder)

Whey (the liquid protein portion of milk)

Textured vegetable protein (similar to seitan, vegan)

Textured soy/pea protein (vegan, sometimes used in cheaper meat products like burger patties/sausages)

Pea protein concentrate/isolate (Vegan)

Seitan (Chinese mock meat, also called gluten)

Amino acids (the building blocks of protein)

Hydrolysed vegetable proteins (flavouring agents, similar to Monosodium Glutamate or MSG)

Carbohydrates

Beyond the starches present in our staple foods, carbohydrates are added mainly in the form of sugars to processed foods to make them taste better. They can have the added effect of covering up the taste of sub-par ingredients by thickening, sweetening and otherwise smiting to heck any detectable traits of sub-par ingredients. You may find that most of the sugars listed below were also highlighted to you in the previous article on Reading Ingredients Lists (click link to read). Carbohydrates are split into mainly starches and sugars.

Names of Common Ingredients (Non-exhaustive) That Contribute Carbohydrates

​Starches (Potato, tapioca, sweet potato, wheat, etc)

Anything that ends with the suffix -ose: · Glucose · Lactose · Maltose · Fructose · Sucrose · Dextrose

High Fructose Corn Syrup/other types of syrups

​Honey

Maltodextrin

Molasses

Evaporated cane juice

Fruit juice concentrates (eg apple, orange, grape, pear being some of the most common)

Agave nectar

Bonus Round! Dietary Fibre

Dietary fibre and “wholegrains” are the buzzword darling of food manufacturers everywhere. They mainly help with your *ahem* digestion (don’t make me say the S-word) and make you feel full, and contribute some purported health benefits as well. I could write a whole article explaining the different types of fibre and their benefits in your everyday diet.

Names of Common Ingredients (Non-exhaustive) That Are Added as Dietary Fiber

Psyllium Husk

Wheat bran

Rice bran

Rye bran

Linseed/Flaxseed

Inulin

Pectin (the stuff that makes fruit jams thick)

Wholegrain flours (eg wheat, rye, spelt)

I hope this has been a useful foray into the alter egos of various ingredients! Remember, there’s no need to obsess about these! These are just handy guides for you to use to look out for what you want to buy.

I think I have written enough about labels and ingredients for now. This first series of articles has been to share my knowledge of how it is I personally shop for my own food products.

Next article, I will be going into the nerdistry of an everyday ingredient that you might not know that much about – you will be able to believe whether something is butter or not! (Comment if you got that reference!)

Stay tuned, and stay hungry, stay curious!

Calvin

6/3/2022