How to Read an Indian Snack Label in Ninety Seconds

The front of a pack is marketing. The back is regulated. Here is how to get most of the truth out of it before your chai goes cold.

Start with the ingredient list, not the nutrition table

Ingredients are listed by descending weight. If refined flour or sugar sits in the first two positions, the nutrition panel is not going to rescue it. A short list is generally a good sign: most products with more than about twelve entries are carrying additives rather than food.

Know these four terms

• Edible vegetable oil — an unhelpfully vague phrase that usually means palm oil. Brands that use groundnut, mustard or ghee say so, because it costs more.
• INS numbers — food additive codes. INS 621 is MSG. The 200-series are typically preservatives. Not all are harmful, but they tell you the product needed help staying stable.
• Nature-identical flavouring — synthesised in a lab to match a natural compound. Legal, common, and not the same as the actual ingredient.
• Trans fat 0 g — check the serving size it is declared against. Indian labelling allows rounding, so a tiny declared serving can hide a real amount.

Then check the serving size

This is where most people are misled. A pack showing a comfortable calorie figure "per serve" may define a serve as 25 g, which for a crunchy snack is roughly one small handful. Multiply everything by four before comparing two products, and always compare per 100 g.

Apply all of this to our packs too. Royal Desi Namakpare lists five ingredients, declares nutrition per 100 g rather than a flattering small serve, names the oil specifically, and carries no INS numbers at all. That is the standard we are asking you to hold every brand to, including us.