
How to read a Nutrition Panel
For a product to be legal in Australia & New Zealand, it must have a complete Nutrition Information panel. Without this information, the product is being sold illegally and consequently you don’t know what you are ingesting! Report the product to FSANZ.
The Nutritional Panel
Look at the Avg Quantity per 100g. Read the Protein number. It normally will be expressed in grams (g). This weight is the percentage of protein contained in the product per 100g. So, if it states 74g then the product is 74% protein. The remaining 25% of the ingredients are not protein and will be a combination of Fats, Carbohydrates, Sugars etc. Read all of the ingredients and discover what you’re really ingesting. Are they all natural or artificial additives?
Products manufactured according to FSANZ are required to contain only permitted ingredients and to a limit quanity. Companies that follow this guideline are producing what are considered safe food products.
The Collagen content.
Collagen is a form of Protein. If the percentage of Protein is less than approximately 70% in a Protein / Collagen product, a fair question would be "what is being added, to fill out the product?" Ultimately diminishing the protein content? By the way; Protein is more expensive than Carbohydrates. Products that include a higher percentage of carbohydrates to protein normally are cheaper to produce.
Unfortunately, many protein products are diluted with either a cheap form of protein or carbohydrates to maximise profits for the manufacturer or brand owner.
Liquid Collagen.
Do you buy liquid collagen? If so, is the size of the liquid measured by weight – gm, including the liquid or collagen component? The Nutrition Information and the packaging should indicate this correctly. A collagen liquid product weighing 10g which includes both liquid and collagen is not 10g of collagen as the collagen is diluted in the liquid. So the question to ask is, "what quantity of the collagen liquid if water? Is it tap or filtered water? Good questions to ask for understanding exactly what your ingesting and how much collagen is contained in the liquid.