Our criteria

Print this page for a handy shopping guide!

Our nutrition criteria

The tables above show the criteria we use when assessing products. They're based on the latest nutrition recommendations and dietary guidelines established by government health experts in Australia and internationally.*

These criteria are designed to help you make healthy choices for your kids. They help you determine which foods are high in the nutrients we shouldn't have too much of –– fats, sugars and sodium (or salt) –– and which are low in those nutrients. It's a judgement about the food itself rather than the contribution it makes to a child's daily nutritional intake, so it's relevant to the whole family and all foods (see 'Daily intakes', below, for more information about kids' nutritional requirements).

Most packaged foods are required by law to display a nutrition information panel so you can check almost any packaged product in your fridge or pantry against these criteria. You can also print this table and keep it in your wallet to help you make healthy choices when you're out shopping. Here's how:

Step 1:   Select a food product.

Step 2:   Find the nutrition information panel on the back or side of the pack.

Step 3:   Look for the "per 100g" column (it's usually the column on the right).

Step 4:   Check the amounts of fats, sugars and sodium to see how they compare with CHOICE Food for Kids' nutrition criteria.

Step 5:   Compare the nutrition information panels of different products to find the healthiest option.

Step 6:   Compare any other relevant nutrients such as fibre, calcium and kilojoules.

It's OK for kids to occasionally eat foods that have too much fat, sugar or salt, but if they eat too many of these foods every day this can add up to an unhealthy diet.

The nutrition criteria are just a guide –– some foods can be high in unhelpful nutrients like saturated fat or sugars but provide other healthy nutrients like vitamins, minerals and fibre. (Some fruits contain a lot of sugar, for example, but they're packed full of goodness so we'd never suggest you avoid giving your kids fruit!). Sometimes it's difficult to tell which foods can be eaten everyday and which are best eaten every once in a while. That's why in the "What we say" section of each product review we give you a more detailed account of the product's nutritional value and the claims that might be made in its advertising and on its packaging.

How we assess milk drinks

The CHOICE Food for Kids 'drinks criteria' sets lower limits for the amount of fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium that can be in a drink, compared to a food. Milk is naturally higher in total fat and saturated fat than other drinks but the protein and calcium and other nutrients in milk mean it is an important part of a healthy diet. The nutritional benefits of milk, compared with other drinks, mean milk drinks deserve to be assessed against different nutrition criteria to other drinks. For this reason, CHOICE Food for Kids applies the 'food criteria' to milk drinks.

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating considers milk to be one of the three most important foods in the dairy food group along with yoghurt and hard cheeses. Milk, yoghurt and cheese are good sources of calcium and protein as well as other important vitamins and minerals. We should eat between two and five serves of this food group each day.

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating advises that water is the best drink for hydration. Soft drinks and fruit drinks are considered ‘extra foods’ and are not essential to provide nutrients that the body needs. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating considers that juices are part of the fruit group but acknowledges that they don’t have the same fibre content as fresh fruit.

What about exercise?

It's important that children eat a healthy diet but it's just as important that they get regular exercise.

The aim of CHOICE Food for Kids is to help parents make sense of all the marketing hype and labelling information so they can confidently choose healthier foods for their kids. We hope this will also encourage manufacturers to make healthier products and highlight the need for tougher regulation around food marketing to kids.

There are a lot of great websites with tips on how to get your kids moving. You'll find some of them in Useful links.

Daily intakes

CHOICE Food for Kids product reviews show you how fatty, sugary and/or salty individual products are.

It’s also helpful to know how much fat, sugar, salt and other nutrients it’s acceptable for your child to have in a day. We’ve outlined the daily intake of an average eight-year-old in the table below.

The values are based on recommendations from the NHMRC and Department of Health in Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand (2006) and Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia (2003). If you’d like more information on daily intakes –– for younger or older children, for example –– go to Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand.

Daily intake for an eight-year-old

(A) This is the estimated requirement, based on light to moderate activity levels.

(B) This is the recommended dietary intake.

(C) This amount of fat and saturated fat provides 30% and 10% respectively of the estimated energy requirement, which is acceptable according to government dietary guidelines.

(D) This amount of sugar provides 20% of the estimated energy requirement, which is acceptable according to government dietary guidelines.

(E) Regularly eating at least this amount of fibre is recommended.

(F) Regularly eating more than this amount can have adverse effects.

* Our nutrition criteria are based on the following nutrition guidelines:

Food Standards Agency. (2007), Front of Pack Nutritional Signpost Labelling - Technical Guidance. Food Standards Agency, UK.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand. (2007), Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Commonwealth of Australia.

National Food Authority. (1995), Code of Practice - Nutrient claims in food labels and in advertisements. Commonwealth of Australia.

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2006), Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. Commonwealth of Australia.

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2003), Food for Health - Dietary Guidelines for Childrens and Adolescents in Australia, Commonwealth of Australia.

This page updated September 2007