Q. Some foods are labelled ‘no MSG’. What does MSG stand for and is it bad for our health?

A. Do you look at the date before you buy? I know I do! There are three types of date marking - a Use-by date, a Best-before date as well as a Baked-on date and it's worthwhile knowing the differences. Read on ...

8,700 is a magic number in nutrition. It’s the number of kilojoules (kJ) that is the “average” intake for adults in Australia, if the surveys are correct. It’s widely used as a benchmark figure and as the basis of food labels such as the Percent Daily Intake values. Recently kilojoules have appeared on fast food menu boards and they use 8,700 as the yardstick to assess their foods against. Here's my take on it.

Are you suspicious of additives with their long, strange chemical names and code numbers? Well maybe you should be. Not just because some are considered harmful but because additives are usually indicators that a food is over-processed, cheap and manufactured. The stuff that keeps forever in your cupboard!

Don’t misunderstand me, additives don't automatically mean a food is unhealthy - excess fat, salt and sugar also do that. But additives do flag that the food is mass-produced and has a long shelf life made possible by the use of emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavour enhancers, acidity regulators and preservatives.

Do you look for the red-and-white “Tick” of approval when you shop?  Is it really giving you the healthiest choice on the shelf? Or is it something that companies just buy to make their product look better for you?  I’ve long been a supporter of the Tick program and think it’s proved that it’s got the clout to make the Australian food supply healthier without alienating shoppers.

Have you ever tried to find the exact list of ingredients for Nutella online? The identical one that appears on its label - in descending order from the first (largest ingredient by weight) to the last ingredient, as required by food law? Well, you won’t find it! Here’s the hoop-la I went through to discover exactly what the ingredients in Nutella are and why Nutella is not good for your kids.

On food labels in Australia and New Zealand, nutrition figures are presented in a standard table format called the Nutrition Information Panel or NIP. This important panel shows the quantities per serve and per 100g of the food or 100mL if liquid. If you can understand the numbers on it, I find it's an invaluable aid to assessing any food.

All additives have to be identified by their general functional name and also by a code number OR their individual chemical name. So citric acid may appear as either FOOD ACID (CITRIC ACID) or FOOD ACID (330) - in the latter case, you need an additive code list to find out which food acid it is.