Activity 4 - Part A: Investigate, analyse and justify

Issue: Product labels are designed to provide nutritional information to consumers through the nutrition information panel and the ingredient list. However, health messages included on packaging have the potential to confuse the consumer in making healthy choices.

  

1. Investigate the nutritional information and health messages found on two popular snack food packaged products available in the supermarket. The two popular food items that I will be looking at for the nutritional information and health messages will be for shapes and ice cream.

2. Collate the information found on the label of each product label.

3. Investigate the health advantages and disadvantages of the main ingredients found in these products. The health advantages of the shapes are that there are no artificial colours and no artificial preservatives in the shapes, and because they are baked and not fried, there are no fatty oils that are stuck on the shape giving the body cholesterol. The health advantage of the ice cream is that it is made with fresh milk and cream. If they were not fresh, then the ice cream would taste bad and the consumer may find health problems having expired dairy products. The disadvantage of both products is that they both contain artificial flavours; however the ice cream also has artificial colours and preservatives.

4. Analyse this information to determine which product is healthier. The food product that is healthier out of the shapes and the ice cream is the shapes

5. Determine which food product is healthier and justify your choice in 150–200 words. Use evidence from your investigation and analysis to support your arguments. The shapes are certainly a healthier option than the ice cream because it has no artificial colours or preservatives present, unlike the ice cream which has those items present in the ingredients list. For every 100g eaten of the 2 products, the ice cream provides 866kJ, whilst the shapes provide 2000kJ, which keeps you and your body moving for longer. The shapes have more protein than ice cream, with 12.7g compared to 2.7g respectively. The saturated fat in the shapes is 0.4g less than in the ice cream, with 7.2g. There are more carbohydrates in the shapes (56.6g) compared to the ice cream (23.9g) and are less sugars (1.6g) compared to the ice cream (21.8g) There is definitely a lot more sodium in the shapes, with 764mg compared to only 52mg in the ice cream. This is why having the shapes are definitely a healthier option than having ice cream.