How to Read Ingredient Lists in the Store [No Glasses]

The problem with aisle reading

You are in the supermarket holding a jar of pesto, trying to check whether it contains cashews, and the ingredient list is a paragraph of 5 point type wrapped around a curved label in four languages. Your glasses are in the car. This is one of the most common everyday reasons people reach for a magnifier.

Store lighting is usually bright, so the challenge is not darkness but size, curvature, and clutter. A phone handles all three, as long as you use it in a particular way.

Photograph, then read

Reading live through the camera while holding a jar in one hand and a phone in the other is awkward. Instead, capture the label once and read from the image.

1. Put the product down on the shelf edge or hold it against your body so it is still.
2. Hold the phone roughly 10 cm from the label, parallel to the text, and zoom to 4x to 5x.
3. Tap the ingredient list to focus and take the photo.
4. Put the product back, then pinch to zoom on the image and scroll through the list at your own pace.

In LoupeLens, one tap both focuses and captures, and the shot goes to a LoupeLens album in Photos, so if you compare several brands you can flip between their labels in one place. You can do the same with the Camera app, with a little more fiddling.

Curved labels on jars and cans need two or three photos, because the text at the edges curves away from the lens and blurs. Rotate the jar a third of a turn between shots.

Find the allergens first

If you are checking for an allergen, you do not need to read the whole list. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, the 14 regulated allergens must be emphasized within the ingredient list. In practice that means bold, capitals, or a different color. Zoom out to the whole list and look for the emphasized words; they are the ones that matter.

The 14 are: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, lupin, and molluscs. Many labels repeat them in a separate "Contains" line, and "May contain" statements about cross-contact are voluntary. In the United States, the major allergens must be declared in plain English, either in parentheses after the ingredient, such as "whey (milk)", or in a "Contains" statement below the list, so read that line rather than looking for bold type. For a fuller discussion of shopping with allergies, see grocery shopping with food allergies.

Understanding the order

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight at the time of manufacture. The first three or four ingredients tell you most of what the product is. If sugar, glucose syrup, or a vegetable oil appears first, you know what you are mostly buying. Anything below about the fifth position is present in small amounts.

Compound ingredients are broken down in brackets, for example "chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier: soya lecithin)". This is where allergens often hide, so look inside the brackets.

E-numbers and additive names

European labels list additives either by name or by E-number, usually with their function first, such as "preservative: E202" or "emulsifier: lecithin". The number ranges are a quick guide.

Range	Function	Common examples
E100 to E199	Colors	E100 curcumin, E160a carotenes, E150 caramel
E200 to E299	Preservatives	E202 potassium sorbate, E211 sodium benzoate, E250 sodium nitrite
E300 to E399	Antioxidants and acidity regulators	E300 ascorbic acid (vitamin C), E330 citric acid
E400 to E499	Thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers	E412 guar gum, E440 pectin, E471 fatty acid esters
E600 to E699	Flavor enhancers	E621 monosodium glutamate
E900 to E999	Glazing agents, sweeteners	E950 acesulfame K, E951 aspartame, E955 sucralose

If you are avoiding a specific additive, knowing its number means you can scan for a three-digit code rather than reading every word. The same additive may appear by name on one brand and by number on another.

Multilingual labels

Products sold across several countries carry the ingredient list in each language, one after another, separated by a two-letter code: EN, DE, FR, NL, FI, SV, and so on. The whole block looks intimidating, but you only need one section.

Zoom out far enough to see the language codes, find yours, then zoom into that block alone. When a photo of the full label is on your screen, this takes seconds. If your language is not included, the ingredient order is the same in every language, so you can map the position of an unfamiliar word to the same position in a language you do read.

Tips for the store

• Glossy labels reflect the overhead lights. Tilt the package slightly away from the lights rather than moving closer.
• Leave the flashlight off in a bright store. It adds glare on shiny film and rarely helps.
• Chilled cabinets fog a camera lens for a moment; wipe it with your sleeve.
• Frozen food labels are on the back, usually through a layer of frost. A photo at 3x often reads better than the live view because you can zoom in on the still image and, if needed, raise the contrast in the Photos editor.
• For nutrition tables rather than ingredients, the article on reading nutrition labels with your phone covers per-100g comparisons.

Allergen labeling rules differ by country and this article is general guidance, not medical advice. If you have a serious allergy, rely on the manufacturer's declaration and your own clinician's advice.