The National Standard for Food Safety General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods (GB 28050-2011, hereinafter referred to as GB 28050) requires mandatory labeling of carbohydrates as a core nutrient in the Nutritional Composition Table of pre-packaged foods, while “sugar” as a nutrient can be labeled in the Table of Nutritional Composition by the enterprises according to their needs. Table for the choice of labeling, labeling form in the immediate vicinity of the carbohydrates below the label “- sugar” or “- lactose” and its content, then carbohydrates and sugar in the end what is the connection or difference? So what is the connection or difference between carbohydrates and sugars? FoodPartner.com brings you an in-depth understanding.

Definition of Carbohydrates and Sugars

According to the requirements of the National Recommended Standard “Basic Terminology for Nutritional Composition of Food” (GB/Z 21922-2008), the definitions of carbohydrates and sugars are as follows:

Carbohydrates: the total system of sugar, oligosaccharide (oligosaccharide) and polysaccharide, which is an important nutrient to provide energy.

Sugars: are all monosaccharides and disaccharides such as glucose and sucrose.

According to the definition of carbohydrates can be seen to contain sugar, from the nutrient content table of prepackaged food labeling the amount of carbohydrates is greater than or equal to the amount of sugar.

In the Nutrition Facts Table

Labeled Values of Carbohydrates or Sugars

Carbohydrate:
According to -GB 28050-Q&A (Revised) the amount of carbohydrates in food can be obtained by subtraction method or addition method. The subtraction method is to take the total mass of the food as 100 and subtract the mass of protein, fat, water, ash and dietary fiber, which is called “available carbohydrates”; or to take the total mass of the food as 100 and subtract the mass of protein, fat, water and ash, which is called “total carbohydrates”. “.

The difference between “available carbohydrates” and “total carbohydrates” is whether or not it contains dietary fiber, which refers to the naturally occurring, extracted or synthetic carbohydrate polymers in plants with a degree of polymerization of DP ≥ 3, which cannot be digested and absorbed by the small intestine and is healthy for the human body. Dietary fiber refers to the naturally occurring, extracted or synthetic carbohydrate polymers in plants with a degree of polymerization DP ≥ 3, which cannot be digested and absorbed by the small intestine of the human body, and are of health significance to the human body; they include cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, inulin, and other dietary fiber components. The value of dietary fiber can be labeled separately or not.

On the label, “available carbohydrates” and “total carbohydrates” are indicated as “carbohydrates”. Addition is the sum of starch and sugar as “carbohydrates”.

Sugar:
Refers to the sum of monosaccharides and disaccharides in a food product. If a company wants to reflect the amount of sugar in the Nutrition Facts Table, it can calculate the amount of monosaccharides and disaccharides added to the food product. Monosaccharides are usually sourced from ingredients such as table dextrose and fructose, while the common disaccharides in nature are sucrose, lactose and maltose. Sucrose is usually sourced from food ingredients such as icing sugar and white granulated sugar, while maltose is usually sourced from food ingredients such as maltose syrup.

Therefore, if the carbohydrates in some food products are entirely derived from monosaccharides or disaccharides, the carbohydrate content is equal to the sugar content. If there are oligosaccharides or polysaccharides in the food products in addition to monosaccharides and disaccharides, the carbohydrate value in the Nutritional Composition Table will be greater than that of the sugar value.

About Claims

1. “Sugar-free” – Synonyms for “sugar-free” claims include “no sugar”, “0 sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar”, “no sugar” and “no sugar”. “No Sugar”, “0% Sugar”, “No Added Sugar”, etc. Claims of no sugar need to meet the requirements of carbohydrate content to meet ≤ 0.5g/100g (solid) or 100mL (liquid), or the content of sugar is 0g.

According to the “Frequently Asked Questions on National Food Safety Standards”, “when the carbohydrates in the nutritional composition table of the product are labeled as “0”, it meets the conditions of the claim of “sugar-free”, and the enterprise can make the corresponding claim, and there is no need for the mandatory labeling of sugar separately in the nutritional composition table. It is not mandatory to separately label the sugar content in the Nutrition Facts Table. If the carbohydrate content is not 0 and the sugar content is 0, can also be sugar-free claim, then you need to separately label the sugar content.”

Currently on the market, many products are advertised as “sugar-free” or “0 sugar”, many of the use of sugar alcohols or sweeteners instead of “sugar”, therefore, the nutrient content of the table labeled carbohydrates are not 0, and sugar is indeed 0, the labeling in this case is also compliant.

2. “Low Sugar” – claiming that “low sugar” is synonymous with “less sugar”, claiming that low sugar needs to meet the carbohydrate ≤ 5g/100g (solid) or 100mL (liquid), or sugar ≤ 5g/100g (solid) or 100mL (liquid), or sugar ≤ 5g/100g (solid), or sugar ≤ 5g/100g (liquid). ), or sugar ≤ 5g/100g (solid) or 100mL (liquid).

3. “Reduce sugar” – synonyms of “reduce sugar” include “reduce sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”, “less sugar”. “Reduced Sugar” – synonyms of “reduced sugar” include “reduced sugar”, “less sugar”, “lower sugar”, and “reduced sugar”. The labeling of the reduced sugar claim should also achieve a “reduction of more than 25% of the sugar content compared with the reference food”, and the reference food usually refers to a similar food that is well known and easy to understand by consumers. The reference food usually refers to food of the same kind or the same genus that consumers are familiar with and can easily understand.

Summary

The value of carbohydrates is calculated, enterprises can only label the content of carbohydrates in the Nutrition Facts Table, or label the content of carbohydrates and sugars at the same time, and should ensure that the labeling data are true and cannot be falsely labeled.