Chapter 30 — Self-Check Quiz

20 questions. Answers with explanations at the end. Aim for 16+.

Questions

1. Which of these is legally defined and enforceable?

• a) "Natural"
• b) "High fibre"
• c) "Wholesome"
• d) "Artisan"

2. Ingredients on a label are listed:

• a) Alphabetically
• b) In descending order by weight
• c) By nutritional importance
• d) In a random order chosen by the manufacturer

3. QUID requires that:

• a) All ingredients are given as percentages
• b) If an ingredient is named, pictured or emphasized, its percentage must be declared
• c) Only allergens are quantified
• d) Nothing — it is voluntary everywhere

4. A product labelled "hazelnut spread" declaring "hazelnuts (13%)" illustrates that:

• a) The manufacturer volunteered the information
• b) The claim triggered the disclosure
• c) 13% is a legal minimum
• d) QUID applies only to nuts

5. Salt and sodium are related by:

• a) They are the same number
• b) Salt = sodium × 2.5
• c) Sodium = salt × 2.5
• d) There is no fixed relationship

6. You should compare products using:

• a) Per serving
• b) Per 100 g — the only figure manufacturers have no discretion over
• c) Per package
• d) Front-of-pack colours

7. In the EU and UK, the nutrition panel declares:

• a) Total sugars and added sugars separately
• b) Total sugars only — there is no added-sugars line
• c) Added sugars only
• d) Neither

8. Declared nutrition values:

• a) Are always laboratory measurements of that batch
• b) May be calculated from recipes and composition tables, with tolerances of the order of ±20%
• c) Are accurate to the decimal place
• d) Are estimated by regulators

9. A declaration of "0 g" can mean:

• a) Exactly zero, always
• b) Below a rounding threshold — which is how "0 g trans fat" appeared on products containing partially hydrogenated oil
• c) The manufacturer didn't measure it
• d) The nutrient is banned

10. "Reduced sugar" means:

• a) The product is low in sugar
• b) At least roughly 30% less than a comparable product — a comparison, not a level
• c) No sugar has been added
• d) Sugar is below 5 g per 100 g

11. Nutri-Score is criticized for:

• a) Being too complex
• b) Not capturing processing at all, rating some whole foods poorly, and being gameable by reformulation
• c) Using warning symbols
• d) Being mandatory everywhere

12. The provenance/quantity test is:

• a) Is the claim on the front or the back?
• b) Does the claim contain a number, or could it be converted into one?
• c) Is it in bold?
• d) Is the product organic?

13. Which is a provenance claim?

• a) "of which sugars: 22 g"
• b) "Chicken (28%)"
• c) "No added sugar"
• d) "High in fibre"

14. For someone with an IgE allergy, which labelling is reliable?

• a) "May contain"
• b) The declared allergen list — mandatory, emphasized and enforceable
• c) "Made in a factory that also handles"
• d) Front-of-pack claims

15. "Gluten-free" is:

• a) Undefined marketing
• b) Legally defined, internationally, at 20 parts per million or below
• c) Defined only in the US
• d) The same as "wheat-free"

16. "Use by" and "best before" differ in that:

• a) They are interchangeable
• b) "Use by" is a safety date; "best before" is a quality date and the food is not unsafe after it
• c) "Best before" is the stricter one
• d) Both are advisory

17. You may freeze food:

• a) Only on the day of purchase
• b) Up to the use-by date, which resets the clock
• c) Never, once labelled
• d) Only before the best-before date

18. kcal per 100 g is:

• a) An arbitrary figure
• b) Energy density — one of the three best-supported mechanisms driving intake, mandatory on European labels and read by almost nobody
• c) Only relevant to athletes
• d) The same as calories per serving

19. Which does a nutrition label NOT tell you?

• a) Energy content
• b) Degree of processing, satiety, whether fibre is intact or added, and what the food displaces
• c) Salt content
• d) Ingredients

20. §30.15's honest concession is that label reading is:

• a) The single most effective dietary intervention
• b) A defensive skill that makes you harder to mislead, but not on its own a dietary intervention
• c) Useless
• d) Only relevant to people with allergies

Answers

1. b) "High fibre." ⚠️ A regulated-if-used claim with a number behind it that the manufacturer had to hit. "Natural," "wholesome" and "artisan" have no definition, no threshold and no enforcement — and they are printed in the same typeface, at the same size, on the same panel. §30.1, §30.9.

2. b) Descending by weight. ⚠️ Which is why the first three ingredients tell you what the product mostly is. §30.3.

3. b) If named, pictured or emphasized, the percentage must be declared. ⚠️ EU/UK; there is no general US equivalent. §30.3b.

4. b) The claim triggered the disclosure. ⚠️ The manufacturer is legally required to tell you how little of the headline ingredient is present, precisely because they made a point of it. Which means the more prominently a product advertises an ingredient, the more likely a percentage is printed on the back — go and find it. §30.3b.

5. b) Salt = sodium × 2.5. ⚠️ A product declaring 0.4 g sodium contains 1.0 g salt. The EU and UK declare salt; the US declares sodium. §30.2.

6. b) Per 100 g. ⚠️ The only figure that lets you compare two products, and the one manufacturers have no discretion over. §30.2.

7. b) Total only. ⚠️ Which means a European reader cannot separate a fruit yoghurt's own sugar from what was added, using the panel alone. The workaround is the ingredients list: if sugar or an alias appears, sugar was added, and where it appears tells you roughly how much. ⚠️ Chapter 18's targets are about ADDED and free sugars, so reading a European label against them requires the ingredients list every time. §30.4.

8. b) May be calculated, with tolerances around ±20%. ⚠️ So don't read a panel to the decimal place — 4.8 g and 5.2 g are the same product. But 22 g versus 5 g is a real difference. ⚠️ Ask what the measurement error is before acting on a difference — Chapter 2 §2.5's problem, on a cereal box. §30.5b.

9. b) Below a rounding threshold. ⚠️ Historically the mechanism by which "0 g trans fat" appeared on products containing partially hydrogenated oil (Chapter 9 §9.3). Check the ingredients list — the ingredient cannot be rounded away. §30.5b.

10. b) A comparison, not a level. ⚠️ "Reduced" and "light" mislead most, because people read comparisons as levels. A "reduced sugar" biscuit is compared to the standard biscuit, not to an apple. §30.8.

11. b) Doesn't capture processing, rates some whole foods poorly, gameable. ⚠️ Chapter 22's whole argument arriving as a labelling problem: a reformulated ultra-processed product can score well while a whole food high in fat scores badly. §30.6.

12. b) Does it contain a number, or could it? ⚠️ Two seconds, and it is the single most useful distinction in the chapter. If not, the claim is about provenance and is answering a question you didn't ask. §30.7.

13. c) "No added sugar." ⚠️ A statement about the manufacturing process, on a product that may still be high in sugars. The other three are quantity claims and two are verifiable from the panel. §30.7.

14. b) The declared allergen list. ⚠️ Mandatory, emphasized, enforceable. ⚠️ "May contain" is largely voluntary, unstandardized and NOT risk-graded — which forces people either to avoid everything so labelled or to ignore it, and that is a labelling failure rather than a patient failure (Chapter 28). §30.10.

15. b) Legally defined at ≤20 ppm. ⚠️ The exception that proves the rule: it has a number, a test and a threshold because coeliac disease made one necessary. Most other "free-from" claims have none of those — which matters enormously if the reason you're reading them is anaphylaxis rather than preference. §30.11.

16. b) Safety versus quality. ⚠️ A very large quantity of edible food is discarded on the basis of a quality indicator being read as a safety instruction — enough that retailers in several countries have removed best-before dates from fresh produce. §30.11b.

17. b) Up to the use-by date. ⚠️ Freezing on the use-by date is permitted and buys you months. "Display until" and "sell by" are for the shop, not for you. §30.11b.

18. b) Energy density. ⚠️ Chapter 22 identified it as one of three best-supported mechanisms driving intake, it is mandatory in the top row of every European panel, and almost nobody reads it as such. Anchors: fruit and vegetables under 100 · cooked grains and legumes 100–200 · bread and lean meat 250–350 · biscuits and crisps 450–550 · oils ~900. §30.12.

19. b) Processing, satiety, fibre type, and displacement. ⚠️ Chapter 22's finding is invisible on every panel in the world; the ingredients list is the only proxy. And "what it displaces" — Chapter 7 §7.7's denominator — appears on no label anywhere. §30.12.

20. b) A defensive skill. ⚠️ It makes you harder to mislead; it is not on its own a dietary intervention, and the evidence that detailed panels change behaviour is weaker than for simple front-of-pack warnings. Chapter 22's slot swap and Chapter 31's planning do more. ⚠️ A person who reads every label but buys from the same aisles has gained accuracy without gaining much else. §30.15.

Scoring

Three items worth checking regardless of score.

Question 3. ⚠️ QUID is the single most under-used rule in food labelling, and it is legally required.

Question 12. ⚠️ Two seconds, applied to every front of pack you ever see again.

Question 16. ⚠️ The date-marking answer probably saves more money than everything else in this chapter combined.