Reading an Indian food label without being fooled

Natural, pure, no added — what those words legally mean, and the five things on a label that actually tell you something.

The words that mean nothing

Natural. Loosely regulated and used freely. A synthetic flavour derived from a plant precursor is frequently marketed as natural.

Pure. Means almost nothing on its own. Pure what, and to what standard?

Homemade, traditional, authentic. Marketing terms with no legal definition. We use "traditional" ourselves, about a method — but it tells you nothing that the method description does not.

The five things worth reading

1. The ingredients list, in order. It is legally ordered by weight, descending. If sugar is first, the product is mostly sugar. This single line tells you more than the rest of the packet.

2. Anything in brackets after an ingredient. Additives appear as a class name and an INS number — "colour (INS 122)", "preservative (INS 211)". Not sinister, but it is the difference between a product with colour in it and one without.

3. The green or brown mark. Green square for vegetarian, brown for non-vegetarian. Mandatory in India.

4. The FSSAI licence number. A 14-digit number that must appear on packaged food. You can look it up on the FSSAI site and see who actually made it — which is often not the brand on the front.

5. Date of packing and best before. For anything seasonal, packing date matters more than expiry. A rose product packed nine months after the spring harvest is made from stored material.

What this looks like on ours

Our gulkand lists rose petals and sugar. The rose water lists rose distillate. If you find anything else in the list, we have made a mistake and we would like to hear about it.