Nutrition labels help individuals who want to know the health benefits of eating food and much more. Labels inform a person of portion size, the calories, nutritional values, ingredients, where it is produced and health claims, if any, of the food they want to consume.

A rehabilitation house for men in Jefferson County participated in the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program through the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service. Reading Food Labels for Everybody was the lesson taught. The class looked at the food labels from the ingredients of Tailgate Caviar and then prepared and sampled the dish.  The men identified portion size, number of portions, how to understand the nutritional information, and how to look for list of ingredients.

Before the session the class informed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education Assistant that they don’t give much thought to reading labels, but after an informative lesson the men in the group stated that they would start to pay more attention in reading food labels to help improve their eating habits. Six out the seven in the class showed an 86% improvement when it came to reading food labels which helps them in making healthier food choices.