Close to High: Reading Fat, Sugar and Salt on Food Labels When You Have a Goal
Where “high” starts for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt per 100 g, how to convert per-serving values, and why a nutrition goal deserves a warning before the traffic light turns red.
Most of us read a nutrition panel the same way: glance at the numbers, look for anything that seems big, move on. Front-of-pack traffic lights help by turning a number red once it's “high”. But if you're actively cutting down on fat, sugar or salt, red is a late warning. A biscuit with 17 g of fat per 100 g is amber, and it's still most of the way to high.
Where “high” starts
The most widely used lines come from the UK Food Standards Agency's front-of-pack scheme, which India's FSSAI front-of-pack proposals and many apps (including TrustPick's Health Score) also build on. Values are per 100 g of food, or per 100 ml of drink, where the lines are halved:
| Nutrient | High, per 100 g | High, per 100 ml |
|---|---|---|
| Fat | more than 17.5 g | more than 8.75 g |
| Saturated fat | more than 5 g | more than 2.5 g |
| Sugars | more than 22.5 g | more than 11.25 g |
| Sodium | more than 600 mg | more than 300 mg |
Labels in India often give sodium rather than salt. Salt is about 2.5 times the sodium, so 600 mg sodium is 1.5 g salt.
Per serving or per 100 g?
Many packs print nutrition per serving, and servings can be oddly small: 25 g of chips, 15 g of sauce. A sauce with 3 g of sugar per 15 g serving is 20 g per 100 g, close to high. Always convert before comparing: divide by the serving size in grams and multiply by 100. TrustPick does this for you whenever the serving size is printed, and says so when it isn't.
Why a goal deserves an earlier warning
A single product a little under the line isn't a problem on its own. But if you've decided to eat less of something, the products that are nearly high are the ones that quietly add up over a week: the “lite” namkeen, the flavoured yoghurt, the breakfast cereal. Those are exactly the products a red light never catches.
So in the TrustPick app, when you set a nutrition goal, you're told once a product reaches 75% of the high line. People without the goal don't see the warning, so the app stays calm for everyone else.
| Your goal | Close to high, food | Close to high, drinks |
|---|---|---|
| Low fat | from 13.1 g | from 6.6 g |
| Low saturated fat | from 3.8 g | from 1.9 g |
| Low sugar | from 16.9 g | from 8.4 g |
| Low salt | from 450 mg | from 225 mg |
A low-fat shopper scanning a namkeen with 14 g of fat per 100 g sees “Close to high in fat for your low-fat goal: 14 g per 100 g; high starts at 17.5 g”. Someone without the goal sees the normal nutrition table.
The other goals
- Calorie-conscious: a note from 300 kcal per 100 g, as 400 kcal is the usual line for energy-dense food.
- High protein: a positive note at 12 g per 100 g or more, the EU line for “high protein” claims in most foods.
- High fibre: “a source of fibre” from 3 g and “high in fibre” from 6 g per 100 g, matching EU claim rules.
- Low fat or low saturated fat: trans fat above 0.2 g per 100 g is flagged too, as the WHO advises keeping it as low as possible.
- Over 60: an earlier sodium note even without a low-salt goal, because blood pressure tends to get more sensitive to salt with age.
Set your goals
Goal checks are part of Made for you with TrustPick Plus, alongside diet, pregnancy and family checks. The full nutrition table and the standard “high” lines stay free for everyone, and the methodology page explains how nutrition feeds into the Health Score.