Are you really as food-savvy as you think? Health writer Rose Costello gives us the low down on what actually is in the food we eat.
From crisps to ketchup, what to look for in labels and how to know what food is genuinely Irish.
Rose told Brenda on The Ray D’Arcy Show that the number one thing you can do to get a handle on what you’re buying is read the label. And not just all the wonderful words on the front. Read the back.
"If you’re buying food, read what’s on the label. Because there’s an awful lot of information out there. And I have always been a person for reading labels."
"It takes me ages to get around the supermarket because I’m fascinated by everything there. But I’ve found that there’s just an awful lot more than you can imagine, lots of little codes and symbols that will give you more information."
But do you need a "science degree", as Brenda put it, to make any sense of what you’re seeing? Not really. According to Rose, there are simple things we can do to make things clearer, like analyse the order the ingredients appear in.
"One key thing you should know is that the item that’s first in the ingredients list, there’s more of that than any other single ingredient. So, when they laid out the ingredients, the one that comes first is the one they have most of."
Don’t let yourself be seduced by buzzwords, Rose urges. The whole "low-fat" craze, for example. Rose explained that when people see that a product is low in fat, they assume it must be the healthier option.
"If a product is low-fat, they need to make it taste good. They need to make it appealing. So, very often, they’ll add extra sugar or they’ll add other types of sweeteners or thickeners to it."
Rose has seen cheese and onion crisps that don’t have any cheese in them and products with an Irish flag on the packet that aren’t actually Irish.
Is there any hope at all, Brenda wondered? What about our beloved tomato ketchup? Rose told Brenda that, at least as far as Heinz is concerned, all is not lost.
"Tomato ketchup is not too bad…The first ingredient on the list there, I’m really happy to report, is tomatoes."
Listen back to the full segment on The Ray D’Arcy Show above.
