The EU Directive 1169/2011 came into full force on December 13, 2016. The first phase of the directive came into effect on December 13, 2014, but the second phase requires nutritional data, which is how to calculate nutritional data.
The first phase of the regulation requires that all ingredients on the label must contain allergen information in the ingredient list. It is legally acceptable to include allergen information in a separate area of your label prior to this rule.
The new regulations only require that allergens be highlighted in the single ingredient list of the product, but the ingredients also need to be stated in quantitative order.
A quantitative order simply means that you must first indicate the largest component, then the second largest indication, and so on. The percentage of these ingredients should also be included.
There are several ways to highlight components; users can use bold text to underline text color text or italic text
If the product contains allergens, 14 allergens must be indicated on the label. These include wheat or oats or any other gluten-containing grain, including milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, molluscs and more.
Another aspect of legislation is the coordination of the legibility of the text on food labels.
Historically, text can be very difficult to read because manufacturers put as much information as possible into a small portion of the label to maximize the marketing potential of the rest of the label.
The new regulations require that all text be legible and the specific height of the letter "x" in the font is not less than 1.2 mm. In layman's terms, this means that standard Arial or Times New Roman fonts require 6.5 points and size.
The second phase of the regulation, which came into effect in December this year, requires all prepackaged foods to provide nutritional data so that consumers can choose the nutrients in the food they buy.
The law stipulates that this information must be communicated to the customer every 100 grams.
Information can also be conveyed separately in each serving so that, for example, the sandwich will constitute a food, so the food producer can provide information based on the entire sandwich. Food producers can also indicate nutritional value in a portion, such as a biscuit or a small piece of chocolate. However, food producers must also provide information in every 100 grams format in all cases.
How to calculate nutritional data
To calculate the nutritional value of prepackaged foods sold to public food production, companies need to understand the nutritional value of the ingredients in their products. Perhaps the best way to show how to calculate nutritional data is to give an example; ham and mustard sandwiches.
Ham and mustard sandwiches may consist of four ingredients; we will have bread, ham, mustard and margarine or butter to make a sandwich. Each of these ingredients will be added in the order of the formulation; that is, each product will have a specific weight to make up the standard product.
Food manufacturers need to start with nutritional basic data for each ingredient - as mentioned above, legislation requires nutrition data to be provided per 100 grams. Since all manufacturers require this, most food production companies should be able to get this information directly from the packaging of the products they buy, or by talking to their suppliers.
In our case, food producers can tabulate the data for the components. The information that must be conveyed includes kilojoules and kilocalories; they must also convey total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar, protein and salt in grams.
If food producers wish to do so, they can also point to monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, polyols and starches [carbohydrates] and fibres.
The order of nutrients is specific and must be followed to comply with the regulations.
Once the data sheet for all ingredients is prepared per 100 grams, the food producer needs to know the weight of each product used to make the sandwich in the formula. In this example, the food producer needs to know the weight of two slices of bread [such as 60 grams], the ham they use [for example 30 grams], and 10 grams of mustard 5 grams of margarine.
Once completed, a simple calculation of each component is made to determine how many calories, how much fat, saturated fat, etc. are present in the formula. The calculation divides the 100 g nutrition data by 100 and multiplies it by the weight of the ingredient in the ingredients.
E.g. If 100 grams of ham is 350 calories, dividing by 100 is 3.5 calories per gram. The 30 grams used per gram of 3.5 calories x formula is 105 calories.
Once completed, the food manufacturer will accurately indicate the total nutritional data for the ham and mustard sandwiches by simply adding the values of each ingredient together as the total amount of the formula.
This is how to calculate nutritional data using Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc.
At present, food manufacturers in the UK face enormous challenges in meeting the targets set out in the regulations, and if they do not, they need to address them quickly.
Orignal From: How to calculate nutritional data using Excel or Open Office Calc
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