Guideline daily amounts
Guideline daily amounts (GDAs) are for average adults of normal healthy weight as shown on the right. Individual needs will vary depending on age, weight, and activity levels. People trying to lose weight will probably need fewer calories and less fat.
Sometimes GDAs are labelled for ‘adults’.
These figures are based on the GDAs for women to encourage people who need less energy to consume fewer calories.
Each day
Women
Men
Energy (calories)
2000
2500
Fat
Up to 70g
Up to 95g
Saturated fat
Up to 20g
Up to 30g
Sugar
Up to 50g
Up to 70g
Salt
Less than 6g
Less than 6g
Fibre
16g
20g
Looking at the label can help you decide whether the product contains ‘high’ or ‘low’ amounts of fat, sugar and salt.
- The table below guides you as to how much is in your food or drink per 100g. Your actual serving size affects how much sugar, fat, saturated fat and salt you will consume.
- If the quantity falls between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ figures, it is a medium amount.
This is high (per 100g)
This is low (per 100g)
20g fat or more
3g fat or less
5g saturated fat or more
1g saturated fat or less
10g sugars or more
2g sugars or less
1.25g salt or more
0.25g salt or less
0.5g sodium or more
0.1g sodium or less
3g fibre or more
0.5g fibre or less
- The figures for sugar don’t tell you how much of the sugar comes from natural sugars (eg fruit sugar known as fructose and milk sugar known as lactose) and how much comes from added sugars (eg sucrose).
- Please select from the label items on the right to decode some of the words you may find on food labels.
