Should I read the per serving or per 100 g column on an Indian food label?

Read per 100 g. Serving sizes are chosen by the brand and are often unrealistically small, which makes the sugar, fat and sodium numbers look lower. Per 100 g is the only column that lets you compare two packets fairly.

What does multigrain mean on an Indian food label?

Only that more than one grain is present. It says nothing about how much of each, and a multigrain biscuit is often mostly refined flour. Look for whole wheat or whole grain as the first ingredient instead.

How much sugar is too much in a packaged food?

Four grams of sugar is about one teaspoon. If a food you eat every day carries more than about 10 g of sugar per 100 g, treat it as a sweet rather than a staple, and check where sugar sits in the ingredient list.

How to Read Indian Food Labels in 30 Seconds: A Simple Guide

The front of the packet is advertising. The back is the law.

Everything you need is in four small checks on the back — and each one takes about five seconds once you know where to look.

The 30-second version

Read the per 100 g column, never per serving.
Read the first three ingredients.
Sugar ÷ 4 = teaspoons.
Sodium × 2.5 = salt.

Here is the label. Here is what matters.

This is a typical Indian breakfast cereal panel. The three marks are the only things worth your attention:

Nutritional Information

Per

Serving
(30 g)

100 g

1Energy (kcal)

118

394

Protein (g)

2.1

7.0

Carbohydrate (g)

25.2

84.0

2of which Total Sugars (g)

6.6

22.0

Total Fat (g)

0.6

2.0

3Sodium (mg)

135

450

Check the serving size first: this pack counts a serving as 30 g. A normal bowl is closer to 60 g — so for most people, every number in the middle column doubles.

An illustrative panel in the standard FSSAI format. Values are representative of sweetened breakfast cereals sold in India, not a specific brand.

The four checks

5 seconds

Read per 100 g, not per serving

The brand picks the serving size. It is often smaller than any real portion — 30 g of namkeen, two biscuits, half a cup of cereal.

Per 100 g is the only column that lets you hold two packets side by side and compare them honestly. It is the green column above. Use it every time.

10 seconds

Read the first three ingredients

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. Whatever is first is what you are mostly buying.

Ingredients — the same cereal

Rice flour Sugar Wheat flour Salt Malt extract Vitamins & minerals Antioxidant (INS 320)

Sugar is the second-largest ingredient by weight. The front of this box says "whole grain".

If maida or sugar appears in the first three of something sold as healthy, the back of the pack has already contradicted the front.

One wording difference worth knowing: "wheat flour" usually means refined. For genuine whole grain, the words you want are "whole wheat flour" or "whole grain" — and you want them first, not fifth.

10 seconds

Find the sugar, under all its names

Sugar is often split across several ingredients so no single one rises to the top of the list. All of these are sugar:

sucrose · glucose · fructose · dextrose · maltose · invert sugar · liquid glucose · glucose syrup · corn syrup · high-fructose corn syrup · maltodextrin · molasses · honey · jaggery · fruit juice concentrate

22 g of sugar per 100 g

The cereal above, in teaspoons

4 g ≈ 1 teaspoon → 5½ teaspoons in every 100 g

The same arithmetic on a soft drink: 40 g of sugar in a bottle is ten teaspoons.

5 seconds

Check the sodium

Labels may show salt or sodium, and they are very different numbers.

450 mg

sodium
per 100 g

× 2.5

≈ 1.1 g

of salt
per 100 g

1 g of salt is roughly 400 mg of sodium. To go the other way, multiply sodium by about 2.5.

The WHO and ICMR-NIN both advise keeping total salt under about 5 g a day — one level teaspoon, everything included. Namkeen, biscuits, bread, sauces and instant noodles add up faster than most people expect.

Decoding the front of the pack

MultigrainMore than one grain is present. Nothing about how much, or whether any is whole.

Made with whole wheatSome is in there. Check whether it is first in the ingredient list or last.

No cholesterolTrue of every vegetable oil ever made. Tells you nothing.

Sugar-freeNo added sucrose. May still contain other sweeteners, refined flour, fat and plenty of calories.

Made with real fruitOften a few per cent of concentrate. FSSAI requires the percentage to be declared — find it.

Trans fat freeBelow the threshold that allows the claim, not necessarily zero. Look for "hydrogenated" or "vanaspati".

Baked, not friedLess oil than frying. Can still be a refined-flour, high-salt snack.

Natural · Farm fresh · Goodness of…Nothing at all. These are not defined terms.

Two marks worth two extra seconds

The green or brown dot. Green is vegetarian, brown (formerly red) is non-vegetarian. Mandatory on Indian packaged food.
The FSSAI licence number. A 14-digit number on the pack. If a packaged food doesn't carry one, put it back.

The routine, start to finish

Turn the packet over. Ignore the front entirely.
Find the per 100 g column.
Read the first three ingredients. Maida or sugar there? You already know what it is.
Sugar per 100 g ÷ 4 = teaspoons.
Sodium per 100 g × 2.5 = grams of salt.

Common questions

Per serving or per 100 g — which should I read?

Per 100 g, always. Serving sizes are set by the brand and are often smaller than a real portion, which quietly shrinks every number on the panel.

Is jaggery healthier than sugar on a label?

Marginally different in trace minerals, essentially the same in sugar and calories. High in the ingredient list, treat it exactly as you would sugar.

Are "atta" biscuits better than normal biscuits?

Sometimes, a little. Check whether atta is genuinely first, and what the sugar and fat per 100 g are. The difference is usually smaller than the packaging suggests.

Put the packet's numbers to work

Log it in the tracker, or read the panel out to the coach and ask what it means for your day.

Track today Ask the coach

Sources

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 — nutrition panels, ingredient order, veg/non-veg marks and licence numbers.
ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 — guidance on added sugar, salt and processed foods.
World Health Organization. Guideline: Sodium intake for adults and children — the under-5 g of salt a day figure.

The label and ingredient list shown are illustrations in the standard FSSAI format, representative of sweetened breakfast cereals sold in India — they are not copied from, and do not depict, any specific brand. Labelling rules change; if a packet differs from what is described here, the packet and the current FSSAI regulation are what count. This article is educational information, not medical or nutrition advice — see a doctor and a registered dietitian before changing your diet.

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How to read an Indian packaged-food label in 30 seconds