How to Find Hidden Sugar in Food UK

What the NHS Says About Sugar

The NHS recommends that free sugars — any sugars added to food or drink, plus sugars found naturally in honey, syrups, fruit juices, and smoothies — should make up no more than 5% of your daily energy intake. In practical terms, that means:

These limits apply to free sugars only. Sugars naturally present in whole fruit, vegetables, and plain milk do not count, because they come packaged with fibre, vitamins, and minerals that slow absorption and provide genuine nutritional value.

The 56+ Names for Sugar on UK Labels

One of the reasons sugar is so hard to spot is that manufacturers use dozens of different names for it. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so by splitting sugar across multiple names, each individual sugar appears further down the list. Here are the most common ones you will encounter on UK food labels:

Where Hidden Sugar Lurks in Everyday Foods

The foods that catch most people off guard are not the ones you would naturally think of as sweet. Here are the most common culprits in UK supermarkets:

Yoghurt and Fromage Frais

A single 150g pot of flavoured yoghurt can contain 20g or more of sugar — two-thirds of your daily limit. Even yoghurts marketed as “light” or “low fat” often compensate by adding extra sugar for taste. Plain natural or Greek yoghurt typically contains only 4–5g of naturally occurring lactose per 100g.

Pasta Sauces and Cooking Sauces

Many jarred pasta sauces contain 7–12g of sugar per serving. Sweet chilli sauces, teriyaki sauces, and barbecue sauces can contain 15–25g per tablespoon-sized serving. Even tomato ketchup is around 23g sugar per 100g.

Bread

A standard slice of white bread contains around 1–3g of sugar, which sounds modest. But across a day — toast at breakfast, a sandwich at lunch — it adds up to 4–12g before you have eaten anything obviously sweet. Some speciality breads (brioche, fruit loaves) contain significantly more.

Breakfast Cereals

Some popular UK cereals contain over 30g of sugar per 100g. Even “wholegrain” or “high fibre” cereals can contain 15–20g per 100g. Granola is frequently one of the highest-sugar breakfast options, often exceeding 20g per 100g.

“Healthy” Snack Bars

Cereal bars, protein bars, and fruit bars marketed as healthy alternatives to chocolate often contain just as much sugar. A typical cereal bar contains 8–15g per bar. Date-based “energy balls” and fruit bars can be even higher due to concentrated fruit sugars.

Drinks

Fruit juices, smoothies, flavoured waters, sports drinks, and iced teas can all contain substantial amounts of sugar. A 250ml glass of orange juice contains around 22g of free sugars, even with no added sugar — it counts because the fibre has been removed.

How to Read Traffic Light Labels for Sugar

The UK front-of-pack traffic light system, recommended by the Food Standards Agency, makes it straightforward to assess sugar content at a glance:

The traffic light system is voluntary in the UK, though most major retailers (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Co-op, M&S, Waitrose) use it on their own-brand products. Brand-name products may or may not include it.

Per 100g vs Per Serving: Which Should You Check?

Both matter, but for different reasons:

• Per 100g is best for comparing products. It gives you a standardised measure so you can directly compare two brands of the same product. This is also what the traffic light thresholds are based on.
• Per serving tells you what you will actually eat. However, be cautious — serving sizes are set by the manufacturer and can be unrealistically small. A “serving” of cereal is often listed as 30g, which is far less than most people actually pour.

Practical Steps to Reduce Hidden Sugar

You do not need to eliminate sugar entirely — that is neither realistic nor necessary. The goal is awareness: knowing where sugar is hiding so you can make informed decisions.

1. Get into the habit of checking labels

It takes less than 10 seconds to flip a product over and glance at the sugar per 100g figure. After a few weeks, you will instinctively know which products are lower in sugar.

2. Scan barcodes for instant clarity

Using a food scanner app takes the guesswork out of label reading. Scan the barcode and you can see the sugar content, traffic light rating, and full ingredient breakdown immediately — no squinting at tiny text required.

3. Choose plain versions and add your own flavour

Plain yoghurt with fresh berries. Porridge oats with a sliced banana. Unflavoured rice cakes with nut butter. The plain version of almost any food is significantly lower in sugar than its flavoured counterpart.

4. Watch out for “healthy” marketing

Terms like “natural”, “organic”, “wholegrain”, and “high fibre” say nothing about sugar content. An organic flapjack can contain just as much sugar as a standard chocolate bar. Always check the numbers.

5. Track your daily intake

Logging your food for even a few days can be eye-opening. Most people are genuinely surprised by how quickly sugar adds up when they start reading labels carefully. A calorie counter that also tracks sugar makes this much easier.

6. Make swaps gradually

Sudden, drastic changes rarely stick. Try swapping one high-sugar item at a time: flavoured yoghurt for plain, sugary cereal for porridge, fizzy drinks for sparkling water with a slice of lemon. Small changes sustained over weeks make a bigger difference than a dramatic overhaul that lasts three days.

How Scanning Helps You Spot Hidden Sugar

Reading every label in the supermarket is time-consuming. A barcode scanner puts all the information you need at your fingertips in under a second:

• Instant sugar content — see the total sugar per serving and per 100g without reading tiny print
• Traffic light rating — immediately see whether sugar is green, amber, or red
• Ingredient breakdown — spot sugar-related ingredients (glucose syrup, maltodextrin, etc.) flagged in the ingredients list
• Daily tracking — log what you eat and see your running sugar total for the day
• Comparison shopping — scan two similar products side by side to choose the lower-sugar option

NutraSafe can help you track this — scan any barcode, see the full nutritional breakdown including sugar, and log it to your daily diary to keep an eye on your intake over time.

Surprising Sugar Content in Common UK Foods

To give you a sense of where hidden sugar lurks, here are some examples of sugar content in everyday UK foods. These are typical values and will vary by brand:

If you had flavoured yoghurt for breakfast, a sandwich on white bread with coleslaw for lunch, and pasta with a jar sauce for dinner, you would already have consumed around 40g of free sugars — before any snacks, drinks, or obvious treats.

Frequently Asked Questions

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