LIGHT, low or no cholesterol, fresh, Australian-made, baked not fried, reduced-fat, no sugar.

Food labels are a valuable source of information, but they can be confusing.

Understanding food labels is important in helping you make the healthy choice, every time.

Often foods are packaged to look healthy, but hidden ingredients can hinder any efforts to eat nutritiously and maintain a healthy weight.

Here's our guide to understanding the essential elements of food labelling:

Ingredients list: Ingredients are listed in order of the proportion they comprise in the total product. The first ingredient is the major ingredient, representing the greatest proportion of any one ingredient in the product. Try to avoid products that list sugar, fat or salt in the top three ingredients.

Nutritional information panel: All packaged food should have a nutrition information panel - highlighting the quantity of various nutrients in a product.

Health star ratings: This system provides an overall rating of the healthiness of a product, as well as specific nutrient and energy information. It takes into account energy, saturated fat, sodium (salt) and total sugars, with the potential to apply modifying points for certain positive aspects of food such as fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content and, in some instances, dietary fibre, protein, and calcium content. The more stars a product has, the healthier it is.

Labelling tricks: Don't be misled by labelling tricks. Here are some common ones to look out for: 'light or lite' does not necessarily mean low-calorie or low-fat, it may just be light in colour, taste or texture. 'Low or no cholesterol' margarine and oil is often meaningless because all vegetable oils contain virtually no cholesterol, but can often be high in fat.