Food Label Sugar Decoder
Type the 'of which sugars' number from any nutrition label and get the UK traffic-light rating, real per-serving grams and teaspoons, and a plain-English verdict.
From the nutrition table on the back of the pack.
The portion you actually have, not the label's.
Amber — medium sugar for a drink. Drinks are consumed 200–330 ml at a time, so even a mid-band number multiplies into serious grams per serving.
Note: rated amber per 100 ml, yet one serving alone is 140% of the WHO ideal daily target — portion size matters as much as the colour.
UK front-of-pack thresholds (total sugars) + WHO ideal of 25 g free sugars/day at 2,000 kcal — guideline-based estimates. Track today's total against your limit →
How to read "of which sugars" without being fooled
Every EU and UK nutrition table states sugar the same way: "Carbohydrate — of which sugars", per 100 g for food or per 100 ml for drinks. That per-100 basis is the only fair way to compare products, and it's what the UK front-of-pack traffic-light scheme rates:
- Food (per 100 g): green ≤ 5 g · amber >5 to 22.5 g · red > 22.5 g
- Drinks (per 100 ml): green ≤ 2.5 g · amber >2.5 to 11.25 g · red > 11.25 g
Drinks get stricter thresholds for a simple reason: you consume them 200–330 ml at a time, they don't fill you up, and liquid sugar hits fast. A "mid-band" 10 g per 100 ml becomes 33 g in one can.
Three tricks the front of the pack plays
1. "No added sugar" is not "low sugar". The claim only says nothing was added — the product can still be loaded with free sugars. Orange juice is the classic case: no added sugar, yet 8–9 g per 100 ml (amber), and a 200 ml glass carries roughly 18 g — most of the WHO's 25 g ideal for the entire day.
2. Per-portion numbers hide behind tiny servings. "Only 6 g per serving" sounds fine until you notice the declared serving is 30 g of granola — about half of what actually lands in a bowl. At 20 g of sugar per 100 g, a realistic 60 g bowl is 12 g of sugar, double the front-of-pack figure. Always anchor on the per-100 number, then multiply by your honest portion — which is exactly what the decoder above does.
3. "Of which sugars" includes natural sugars. Plain milk shows about 4.7 g per 100 ml, but that's lactose — it isn't added sugar and doesn't count toward free-sugar limits. Plain yogurt gets the same pass. Flavoured yogurt at ~12 g per 125 g pot does not: most of the difference is added. When the number alone can't tell you, the ingredient list can — our Hidden Sugar Finder highlights the 70+ names sugar hides behind.
What to actually do with the colour
Treat green products as defaults you never have to think about, amber as "check the real serving", and red as deliberate treats rather than staples — a 45 g chocolate bar runs around 24 g of sugar, over 50 g per 100 g. Once you've decoded a few labels, the habit that changes things is counting your day: the Sugar Intake Tracker applogs each item in seconds and shows the running total against your limit. Everything on this page is a guideline-based estimate for label literacy, not medical advice — individual targets from your clinician always come first.
Frequently asked questions
What do the traffic-light colours for sugar mean on food labels?+
They come from the UK front-of-pack labelling criteria, based on total sugars. For food, per 100 g: green is 5 g or less, amber is over 5 g up to 22.5 g, and red is more than 22.5 g. For drinks, per 100 ml: green is 2.5 g or less, amber is over 2.5 g up to 11.25 g, and red is more than 11.25 g.
Is 'of which sugars' the same as added sugar?+
No — it's total sugars, which includes naturally occurring ones. Plain milk shows about 4.7 g per 100 ml, but that's lactose, not added sugar, and it doesn't count toward free-sugar limits. UK and EU labels don't separate added sugar out, so you have to read the ingredient list to tell where the sugars come from; US labels do show an 'Includes X g Added Sugars' line.
Why is regular cola only amber, not red?+
At about 10.6 g per 100 ml, cola sits just under the 11.25 g red threshold for drinks. But a 330 ml can still delivers roughly 35 g of sugar — about 140% of the WHO's 25 g ideal daily target in one serving. That's why a per-100 ml rating should always be read together with the portion you actually drink.
Does 'no added sugar' mean a product is low in sugar?+
No. It only means no sugar was added during manufacturing — the product can still be naturally high in free sugars. Orange juice with no added sugar carries around 8–9 g per 100 ml, an amber rating, and a 200 ml glass holds roughly 18 g, most of the WHO's 25 g ideal for a whole day.
How much sugar per 100 g counts as low?+
For food, 5 g or less per 100 g qualifies as low (green); for drinks the bar is stricter at 2.5 g or less per 100 ml, because drinks are consumed in much larger quantities. At the other end, anything above 22.5 g per 100 g of food means sugar makes up more than a fifth of the product by weight.
Are these ratings medical advice?+
No — the tool applies published UK front-of-pack thresholds and WHO population guidelines to the numbers you enter, so everything shown is a guideline-based estimate for label literacy. If you have diabetes, prediabetes, or any condition affected by sugar intake, follow the individual targets set by your clinician instead.
Now track it daily
Knowing the number is step one — seeing it every day is what changes it. Sugar Intake Tracker, our iOS app in development, logs added sugar from a photo of your food: snap it, confirm the AI estimate, done.
Meet the appAI estimate · You confirm · Your log stays on your device