The meanings behind our nutrition tags: Your questions answered

Nutrition can be a tricky concept to get your head around. That’s why recipes.co.nz have got you covered with our easy-to-understand nutrition tags, which tell you quick facts about the nutrition content of your favourite recipes. At first glance, these tags might make sense to you, but for those wanting a bit more information, we have delved a bit deeper into what they all mean and how we arrived at each claim.

What does ‘High Protein’ mean?

High protein means a serving† of a food must have at least 10g of protein in it, making it a good protein source. This claim was defined by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand. In this case, we have applied this threshold to the protein content of a typical portion of the meal.

What does ‘High Iron’ mean?

High iron means a serving† of a food or meal must have at least 3.25mg of iron in it, making it a good source of iron. This number is 25% of an adult’s daily recommended intake, so if you are eating the recommended serve of something that is labelled ‘high iron’, you know are getting at least a quarter* of your dietary iron needs for the day.

What does ‘Low Carb’ mean?

Low carb (short for carbohydrate) means a serving† of a food or meal must have 43.3g of carbohydrates or less. Low carb diets are not by and large recommended by health authorities, but low carb meals may be of interest to those who are diabetic, on a ketogenic diet**, or are simply looking for a lighter meal in the week.

What constitutes a low carb claim is still an evolving area of research, however, Dietitians NZ defines it as 130g of carbohydrates per day. For the purpose of our recipes, we have taken that number and divided it by three to represent New Zealand adults having three main meals a day.

The recipes.co.nz team will be adding more nutrition tags to our recipes – so watch this space.

• † The claim is based on one serve size, as specified by the recipe. It is assumed that the recipe is divided equally into the number of serves.
• *note some groups of people have higher iron requirements. This sentence refers to the general average requirement for adult men and women.
• **recipes.co.nz does not endorse the keto diet, however, we aim to accommodate nutrition information to all food lovers, no matter their dietary choice.