How to Read Food Labels
In Boulder and across Colorado, more shoppers than ever are trying to eat clean, avoid ultra-processed foods, and choose healthier, more transparent products. Unfortunately, food labels can be confusing—and many brands use marketing claims to make highly processed foods look healthier than they really are.
Understanding how to read ingredient labels is one of the best ways to protect your family’s health and make better choices at the grocery store or butcher counter.
At Boulder Sausage, we believe food should be clean label, fresh, and honest—which is why we never use fillers, MSG, or artificial additives, and we never freeze our sausage.
Choose Whole Foods and Clean-Label Brands Whenever Possible
The healthiest foods usually don’t need labels at all—because the food is the ingredient.
When buying packaged foods in Colorado, look for brands that:
- Use clean, minimal ingredients
- Avoid fillers, preservatives, and artificial additives
- Are fresh, not ultra-processed
That’s exactly how we make sausage at Boulder Sausage:
- ✅ Clean label
- ✅ No fillers, no MSG, no artificial ingredients
- ✅ Fresh, never frozen
- ✅ Crafted in Colorado with old-world methods
Why Boulder Sausage Is Different
Unlike mass-produced sausages, our products are:
- Made fresh in Colorado
- Never frozen
- Free from fillers and chemical binders
- Made with simple, real ingredients you can recognize
When you read our label, you’ll actually understand it.
Tips to reading food labels:
Ignore the Front of the Package — Read the Ingredients Instead
Claims like “natural,” “healthy,” “light,” or “made with whole grains” are designed to sell products, not necessarily tell the truth. Studies show that shoppers are far more likely to trust foods with these claims—even when the product is still highly processed.
Many well-known “healthy” foods are actually loaded with sugar, refined grains, or additives. That’s why the ingredients list matters far more than the front label.
Rule of thumb:
If you can’t pronounce it, or wouldn’t cook with it at home, it probably doesn’t belong in your food.
The First 3 Ingredients Tell You Almost Everything
Ingredients are listed by weight, from most to least.
- If the first three ingredients include sugar, refined grains, or chemical additives, it’s likely not a high-quality food.
- If the list is longer than a few lines, the product is usually highly processed.
At Boulder Sausage, our ingredients are simple, recognizable, and real—just quality meats, real spices, and nothing else.
Watch Out for Fake Serving Sizes
Many nutrition labels use unrealistically small serving sizes to make calorie, fat, or sugar numbers look better.
Always check:
- How many servings are in the package
- What you actually eat vs. what the label claims is a “serving”
Common Label Claims That Mislead Shoppers
Here’s what many popular claims really mean:
- Natural: Doesn’t mean healthy or unprocessed
- Low-fat: Usually means more sugar added
- Low-carb: Often still highly processed
- Multigrain: Doesn’t mean whole grain
- Gluten-free: Can still be junk food
- Fruit-flavored: Often contains no real fruit
- No added sugar: May still be full of sugar substitutes
- Zero trans fat: Can legally contain small amounts per serving
Sugar Has Dozens of Names – ….and it’s Hidden on Purpose
Manufacturers often use multiple types of sugar to keep any one of them from appearing at the top of the label.
Common names include:
- Cane sugar, brown sugar, beet sugar
- Corn syrup, rice syrup, malt syrup, agave
- Fructose, glucose, maltodextrin, dextrose
- Fruit juice concentrate, molasses, evaporated cane juice
If you see several forms of sugar in one product, it’s almost always heavily sweetened.