How to Read Sugar on Indian Food Labels

Short answer: Indian food labels split sugar into “total sugar” and, increasingly, “added sugar” — check both, then scan the ingredient list for anything ending in -ose or the words syrup, concentrate, or invert sugar, since all of those count as added sugar even when a product’s front-of-pack claims to be healthy.

Total sugar vs added sugar — read both numbers

FSSAI-regulated nutrition labels are required to show total sugar per 100g/100ml and per serving; a growing number of products (though not yet all) also break out added sugar separately. Total sugar includes everything — the natural sugar already in milk or fruit, plus anything sweetened in. If a label only shows total sugar with no added-sugar breakdown, you can’t yet tell how much is naturally occurring versus added — check the ingredient list instead (below) to make a reasonable guess.

The ingredient list tells you what the number doesn’t

Ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first — so if any of these appear in the first few ingredients, added sugar is a significant part of the product, not a minor add-on:

• Anything ending in -ose: glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose — these are all sugar, just under a different name.
• Syrups and concentrates: corn syrup, glucose syrup, fruit juice concentrate — “juice concentrate” in particular sounds natural but is used specifically because it’s a concentrated sugar source.
• “Natural” sweeteners still count: honey, jaggery, and dates paste are genuine sugar sources once extracted from the whole food — they’re not nutritionally different from table sugar in any meaningful way just because they sound more natural.
• Invert sugar: common in mithai and baked goods, functionally identical to regular sugar.

“No added sugar” and “sugar-free” mean specific, different things

These aren’t interchangeable marketing phrases — they’re regulated claims with real definitions:

• “No added sugar” means nothing was added during manufacturing, but the product can still contain natural sugar (a “no added sugar” fruit juice can still be a concentrated sugar source — see the 100% fruit juice entry in this site’s database for what that looks like in practice).
• “Sugar-free” typically means below a specific low threshold (often replaced with sweeteners), not necessarily zero.

Neither claim tells you the whole story on its own — check the actual numbers.

Watch the serving size, not just the sugar number

A product can look low-sugar simply because the stated serving size is small. If a snack’s “serving” is a fraction of what you’d realistically eat in one sitting, multiply accordingly before comparing it to another product. This is one of the easiest ways a label can be technically accurate and still misleading.

This is about informed choices, not elimination

None of this is a reason to cut sugar out entirely — occasional sweets and treats are a normal part of eating, especially in a food culture built around mithai and festive food. The point of reading labels is just to know what you’re actually choosing, so a “healthy-sounding” product doesn’t quietly carry as much sugar as a dessert. A little awareness goes a long way; you don’t need to be perfect about it.

Where to go next

Cross-check any packaged product against this site’s food database before you buy — items like a malted milk drink powder or sweetened flavoured yogurt already show their real added-sugar split, so you can see this in action. If you’re working on cutting back generally, the sugar cravings guide has practical swaps to start with.