How to read a kids' snack label in 30 seconds

The front of a snack pack is an ad. The back is the truth. Once you know where to look, you can size up almost any kids' snack in half a minute. Here is the routine.

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First, flip it over and read the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed by quantity, so the first three tell you what the snack mostly is. Fewer ingredients is usually better, and you should be able to say most of the names out loud.

 

Next, look for hidden sugar. It goes by many names, like glucose syrup, maltodextrin, invert sugar and dextrose. Then find the "added sugar" line, because that is the number that matters most for small teeth. This is the number we watched most closely when we made our Date & Nut Bites. We wanted the sweetness to come from real dates, not from sugar, so the added sugar stays under 1g per 100g.

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Then check the oil. Palm oil is cheap and turns up in a lot of puffed snacks, along with anything "hydrogenated," which is trans fat. That is exactly why we leave palm oil out of our millet puffs and bake them.

Look for whole foods near the top of the list, like millets, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and be careful when maida (refined flour) comes first. Last, glance at the salt. Kids need very little, so high sodium means keep it for once in a while.

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"As a dentist, I see what refined sugar does to little teeth every day. So the first thing I check on any pack is the added sugar line. I taught myself to read a label in seconds, and I want every parent to be able to do the same."

Dr. Subhima, co-founder and paediatric dentist

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Half a minute, and the front of the pack stops fooling you. Every Flyttle pack is built to pass this same check, and you can read our lab reports on the site.