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FOOD LABELS
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Every product currently photographed and entered in this label ledger, grouped by category.
On file
Drinks
Red Bull Zero — Red Bull (distributed by Red Bull North America, Inc., Santa Monica, CA 90404). Sugar-free and just 10 calories, but it carries 114mg of caffeine — the same strength per millilitre as the Sri Lankan Red Bull Sugar Free in this set, in a can 40% larger.
Mountain Dew (2 L Bottle) — Mountain Dew (bottled under the authority of PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, NY 10577; US retail pack). The sugariest soft drink in this set at 46g per 12oz glass, and one of the few non-energy drinks carrying real caffeine — the full bottle holds about 300mg, nearly double a can of Monster.
Coco Fresh Chocolate Flavoured Coconut Milk Drink — Coco Fresh (manufactured by Navik Mills (Pvt) Ltd, Nandimithragama, Pallama 61040; marketed by Jaindi Export (Pvt) Ltd, No. 47 Industrial Estate, Dankotuwa 61130). A dairy-free chocolate drink with roughly a fifth of the sugar of Kotmale's dairy chocolate milk, but almost all of its fat is saturated and it carries essentially no protein — so it is a treat drink, not a milk substitute.
SOZO Salted Coconut Lime Sparkling Drink — SOZO (manufactured under licence in Sri Lanka; manufacturer and distributor details were partly obscured in the photographed panel). Named for coconut and lime but containing neither — both are flavourings over carbonated water and cane sugar — and the "salted" positioning puts about five times the sodium of an ordinary soft drink in the can.
Elephant House Cream Soda — Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, No.117, Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka). Part-sweetened with stevia to cut the sugar to roughly two-thirds of a same-size glass of Sprite, but the bright yellow colour comes from tartrazine, one of the dyes that carries an EU hyperactivity warning.
Elephant House EGB (Ginger Beer) — Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, No.117, Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka). A short, colour-free ingredient list built on real ginger flavour, but the sugar is the highest of any Elephant House soft drink here — one 250ml glass matches an adult's entire daily sugar limit, and the bottle holds two of them.
Kist Funfruit Mango Nectar — Kist (Cargills). Same 25% fruit content as the Smak mango drink in this set, but a third more added sugar — a single 200ml glass carries 22g of it, and the bottle holds two and a half of those.
Elephant House Lemonade — Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, No.117, Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 2, Sri Lanka). The sugariest of the Elephant House drinks in this set — a single 250ml glass runs past an adult's entire daily sugar limit — though the ingredient list is short and carries no added colour.
Monster Energy (Green, Original) — Monster Energy Company. Double the caffeine of a Red Bull or Ride can, and 54g of added sugar in a single 473ml can — with guarana extract layered on top meaning there's caffeine beyond what the caffeine line alone suggests.
Starbucks Doubleshot Energy (Mocha) — Starbucks (North American Coffee Partnership). Real coffee and 10g of protein set it apart from typical energy drinks, but it still carries a full can of added sugar on top of a hefty B-vitamin megadose (up to 260% DV).
Red Bull Energy Drink (Original) — Red Bull (manufactured by Rauch Fruchtsäfte GmbH & Co OG, Austria, for Red Bull Asia FZE; imported/distributed by Stassen Foods (Pvt) Ltd). One can alone carries 27g of sugar, on top of an 80mg dose of caffeine.
Red Bull Sugar Free — Red Bull (manufactured by Rauch Fruchtsäfte GmbH & Co OG, Austria, for Red Bull Asia FZE; imported/distributed by Stassen Foods (Pvt) Ltd). Zero sugar, but the same 80mg caffeine dose as the original — sweetened instead with two artificial sweeteners.
Ride Energy Drink — Ride (Cargills). A slightly smaller sugar hit than Red Bull, but this one adds sodium benzoate as a preservative alongside the same caffeine dose.
Sprite — The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd.). 25g of sugar in a single glass, with no caffeine or other trade-off to offset it.
Sunquick Orange (Triple Concentrate) — Sunquick. Diluted down to a normal glass of juice, one serving still carries 15g of added sugar, and it's preserved with a sulphite worth flagging for sulphite-sensitive drinkers.
Smak Mango Drink — Smak. Most of the sugar here is added rather than coming from the 25% mango pulp — 16.6g of the 23g total sugar per pack is added.
Kist Apple Juice — Kist (Cargills). A genuinely clean juice — 100% apple, no added sugar, colours, flavours, or preservatives — though it still delivers as much sugar per serving as most of the sodas in this set, just naturally.
Pelican Cola — Pelican. A lower-sugar cola than the big international brands, but it uses the same Class IV caramel colour and phosphoric acid as Coca-Cola.
Milo Powder (Chocolate Malt Drink Mix) — Nestlé (Nestlé Lanka Limited). Fortified with a full spread of vitamins and minerals, but over a third of the carbs in a mixed serving are sugar, split between malt-derived and added sucrose.
Milo Chocolate Ready-to-Drink Milk — Nestlé (Nestlé Lanka Limited). Naturally sweetened in part with monk fruit alongside added sugar — a lower-sugar take on chocolate milk than most, at just over half the sugar of Kotmale's chocolate milk per 100ml.
Kotmale Vanilla Milk (UHT Flavoured Milk) — Kotmale. Most of the sugar here is added rather than naturally from the milk, and it's coloured with two synthetic dyes (carmoisine and tartrazine) that carry an EU hyperactivity warning label.
Kotmale Fresh Milk (100%) — Kotmale. The cleanest product in this whole set — just cow's milk, nothing else, and the only sugar is what's naturally in milk.
Kotmale Chocolate Milk (Ready to Drink) — Kotmale. More sugar per 100ml than Milo's ready-to-drink chocolate milk, most of it added rather than from the milk itself.
Nestomalt (Malted Food Drink) — Nestlé (Nestlé Lanka PLC). A fortified malt drink in the same family as Milo — similar carb-heavy, sugar-moderate profile, with its own spread of B-vitamins plus calcium and iron.
Coconut Water — Vita Coco / Silvermill Natural Beverages. The benchmark in this set — almost all of the sugar is naturally occurring, not added, and every ingredient is well-studied and low concern.
Coca-Cola — The Coca-Cola Company. Sugar is the single biggest contributor here, and it comes with caffeine and a couple of additives worth knowing about.
Ice Cream
Highland Vanilla Flavoured Dairy Ice Cream — Highland (Milco (Pvt) Ltd, No. 45, Nawala Road, Colombo 06, Sri Lanka). A true dairy ice cream built on cow milk rather than vegetable fat, which is why it is the richest in this set — but it also declares 0.49g of trans fat per 100g, several times any other ice cream here.
Elephant House Chocolate Flavoured Ice Cream — Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC). Built on vegetable fat rather than dairy cream, which brings the saturated fat per serving to well under half of the Imorich French Vanilla in this set — though it also means the cocoa content is just 2.5%.
Elephant House Vanilla Flavoured Ice Cream — Elephant House (Ceylon Cold Stores PLC). The front of the tub flags "with Natural Vanilla," but that natural vanilla extract is 0.03% of the recipe and the creamy colour comes from two synthetic azo dyes that carry an EU hyperactivity warning.
Kotmale Chocolate Ice Cream — Kotmale (Kotmale Dairy Products (Pvt) Ltd, York Street, Colombo 1 — a Cargills product). One of the few ice creams here that splits added sugar out on the label — 14.3g of the 19.4g per 100g is added, and the rest is what comes with the milk.
Alerics Fudge Brownie Ice Cream — Alerics. A dense, mix-in-heavy ice cream — cookie crumbs alone make up almost 14% of it — coloured with four synthetic dyes rather than natural colourants.
French Vanilla Ice Cream — Imorich. Sugar looks similar to a soda, but the real story is saturated fat — 8.9g per serving, more than half the total fat in the scoop.
Biscuits
Maliban Cream Cracker — Maliban (Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd, House of Maliban, 389 Galle Road, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka). Genuinely sugar-free — under 0.5g per 100g, the lowest in this entire set — but salt does the work instead: 690mg of sodium per 100g is the highest of any biscuit or cereal here.
Pocky (Chocolate Covered Biscuit Sticks) — Glico (Ezaki Glico USA Corporation, Irvine, CA 92614; product of Thailand). Lower in sugar per serving than most of the chocolate in this set, but the shortening includes hydrogenated palm oil — and the box is small enough that finishing it in one sitting means 18g of added sugar and 9g of saturated fat.
Ritzbury Chit-Chat (Choco Coated Wafer) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Half of this wafer's weight is choc coating alone, giving it a similar sugar-and-fat density to a straight chocolate bar despite being marketed as a wafer snack.
Ritzbury Choco Fingers (Choco Coated Biscuits) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Highest sodium of any Ritzbury product in this dataset — 52mg in a single 20g serving (260mg per 100g).
Ritzbury ChokyBix (Orange Flavoured) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). A biscuit-and-orange-flavoured chocolate bar — the fat figure matches the front-of-pack callout exactly, but the front-pack Sugar digit was partly obscured by a package fold, so the back-panel calculation is the more reliable figure here.
Ritzbury Chunky Choc (Choco Coated Biscuits) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The highest sodium of any product in this entire dataset so far — 370mg per 100g, and the pack holds ten bars.
Maliban Gold Marie Biscuit — Maliban. Fortified with a full spread of vitamins (A, B1, B2, D2, E) and iron, but still a sugar-forward biscuit — over a fifth of it by weight is sugar.
Maliban Ginger Biscuit — Maliban. The sugariest biscuit in this set so far — nearly a third of it by weight is sugar, more than the cream-filled orange biscuits nearby on the same shelf tend to run.
Hawaiian Cookies (Coconut Biscuits) — Not stated on pack (Sri Lanka). A fairly fatty biscuit — nearly a fifth of it by weight is fat, and most of that is saturated, coming from the desiccated coconut and palm olein.
Maliban Lemon Puff — Maliban (Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd). Coloured with two synthetic yellow dyes (the same ones flagged elsewhere in this set as tartrazine and sunset yellow, just under their US FD&C names) rather than a natural lemon colour.
Maliban Milk Shortcake — Maliban (Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd). A plainer, lower-sugar biscuit than the Lemon Puff or Gold Marie in this set, with no artificial colours declared.
Kurakkan Crackers (BBQ) — CBL / Ceylon Biscuits Limited. Low sugar makes this look "safer" than the others, but sodium at nearly 900mg/100g means a bigger handful adds up fast.
Chocolate
Cadbury Creme Egg — Cadbury (The Hershey Company, Hershey, PA, under license from Cadbury UK Ltd; manufactured in Canada). A single 34g egg carries 20g of added sugar — 80% of an adult's daily limit — with corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup sweetening the fondant centre on top of the sugar in the shell.
Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar — Hershey (imported by Hershey Canada Inc., Mississauga, Ontario). Nearly all of the 28g of carbohydrate in this bar is sugar, so a single 45g bar runs past an adult's entire daily sugar limit — and its saturated and trans fat together account for 41% of a day's value.
Twix Fun Size Bars — Mars Wrigley (Mars Wrigley Confectionery US, LLC, Hackettstown, NJ 07840-1503). "Fun size" holds up per bar at 8g of sugar, but the five-bar package adds up to 400 calories, 11g of saturated fat and 36g of added sugar — 72% of a day's value.
Mars Bar — Mars (Mars Nederland B.V., Netherlands; imported and distributed by Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd, 389 Galle Road, Ratmalana). Over 60% of this bar by weight is sugar — the highest sugar content of any chocolate bar in this dataset — split between the nougat, caramel, and coating.
Snickers — Mars (Mars Nederland B.V., Netherlands; imported and distributed by Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd, 389 Galle Road, Ratmalana). More sugar by weight than an equivalent-sized Mars Bar isn't quite true here — Snickers actually runs slightly lower on sugar thanks to the peanuts, but makes up for it with more saturated fat.
M&M's Peanut — M&M's / Mars (Mars Consumer Products Africa (Pty) Ltd, South Africa; imported for the Sri Lankan market). The sugar shell is coloured with a mix of natural and nature-identical colourants rather than the synthetic azo dyes flagged elsewhere in this dataset — including carmine, an insect-derived red colour worth knowing about for vegetarians/vegans.
Revello Classic with Crispies — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Nearly half of this bar by weight is sugar, with puffed rice as the only mix-in — a simpler formulation than Revello's fruit-and-nut variants.
Revello Classic with Crackly Crispies — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The highest sugar-by-weight of the five Revello Classic variants photographed in this batch, just edging out the fruit & nut and roasted almond versions.
Revello Classic with Island Fruit & Nut — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Raisins and cashew make up 15% of this bar between them, but it's still one of the higher-fat Revello variants — nearly a third of it by weight is fat.
Revello Classic with Hazelnut Luxe — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The fattiest of the five Revello Classic variants in this batch — over a third of it by weight is fat, with hazelnut making up 15% of the bar.
Revello Classic with Roasted Almonds — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The lowest sugar of the five Revello Classic variants in this batch, though still over a third fat by weight, with roasted almonds making up 15% of the bar.
Revello Speciality Handcrafted Chocolate with Mocha — Revello Speciality (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). A coffee-and-cream filled "composite chocolate" — the mocha filling includes actual coffee, so unlike most chocolates in this set it carries some caffeine, though the amount isn't stated on the label.
Revello Minis Milk Chocolate — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The highest sugar-by-weight of any Revello product in this dataset, though the small 7.5g portion size means a single mini bar has relatively little sugar in absolute terms.
Revello FineMelts with Hazelnut — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). The highest-fat Revello product in this dataset — over a third of it by weight is fat, with hazelnut making up 15% of the bar.
Ritzbury Rocco with Milk — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Uses hydrogenated palm kernel oil alongside cocoa butter rather than being pure cocoa-butter chocolate, and has a notably low protein content for a milk chocolate.
Ritzbury Bubbles Aerated Milk Chocolate — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Almost all of the fat in this bar is saturated (27.7 of 29.2g/100g) — the highest saturated-to-total-fat ratio of any chocolate in this dataset — and it's made with hydrogenated palm kernel oil and cocoa powder rather than cocoa butter and cocoa mass.
Ritzbury Choc-A-Nut (Choco Coated Peanut) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Coloured with three synthetic dyes and glazed with shellac for shine — the first product in this dataset to use shellac as a glazing agent.
Ritzbury Choc-A-Nut Party Time (Choco Coated Peanut) — Ritzbury (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Same recipe and same nutrition-table inconsistency as the standalone Choc-A-Nut box — this is the larger party-size resealable pouch of the identical product.
Zellers Cashew Nut Chocolate — Zellers (Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd). A whole bar already carries more saturated fat than the ice cream in this set, and cashews make up just 12% of the bar.
Kandos Milk Chocolate — Kandos (Ceylon Chocolates Ltd; distributed by Upali Food & Beverages). Over half of this bar by weight is sugar — the highest sugar content of any chocolate in this set so far.
Kandos Super Choconuts — Kandos (Ceylon Chocolates Ltd; distributed by Upali Food & Beverages). Chocolate-coated peanuts with a cocoa butter substitute rather than real cocoa butter — nearly half of this by weight is sugar, and a third is fat.
CBL Revello Dark Chocolate (No Added Sugar) — Revello (CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd). Genuinely sugar-free — sweetened entirely with maltitol instead — but still calorie-dense and high in fat, and the label itself warns that maltitol can cause a laxative effect in some people.
KitKat (Crisp Wafers in Milk Chocolate) — Hershey (under license from Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.). Nearly all of the sugar here (22 of 23g) is added rather than from the milk/cocoa itself, and the pack is manufactured in a facility that also processes peanuts even though peanuts aren't an ingredient.
Snacks
Rancrisp Cassava Chips (Pepper & Sea Salted) — Rancrisp (product of Sri Lanka). The whole pack is one serving by the label's own reckoning, and that serving carries 2.3g of salt and 11.2g of saturated fat — 38% and 56% of an adult's daily reference intake respectively.
Rancrisp Potato Chips (Barbecue) — Rancrisp (product of Sri Lanka; ISO 22000, HACCP and GMP certified). Says "No added MSG" on the back while listing both hydrolyzed vegetable protein and yeast extract, two ingredients that deliver the same savoury hit by releasing free glutamate — and at 38.1g fat per 100g it is the fattiest snack in this set.
Doritos Nacho Cheese — Doritos (Frito-Lay/PepsiCo). A short ingredient list up front (corn, oil, cheese) followed by a long tail of flavour-enhancing additives — MSG, two nucleotide flavour enhancers, and three synthetic dyes.
Pringles Original — Pringles (Kellanova). Made from dehydrated potato rather than sliced whole potato, giving it its distinctive uniform shape — coloured naturally with annatto rather than a synthetic dye.
Scan Jumbo Peanuts (Chilli) — Scan (imported and distributed by C.W. Mackie PLC, Scan Products Division, Colombo). A short, simple ingredient list — just peanuts, palm oil, salt and chilli — but a genuinely fatty snack, at roughly half its weight in fat.
Mister Potato Crisps (Hot & Spicy) — Mister Potato. Sodium is the standout here — 311mg in a single 28g serving, and the can holds more than three servings.
Dairy
Happy Cow Cheese Triangles — Happy Cow (Woerle 1889, Austria). Nearly a quarter of this by weight is fat, most of it saturated, and it's built on a stack of four different phosphate emulsifying salts to keep the cheese smooth and spreadable.
Anchor Milk Powder — Anchor. Fortified full cream milk powder with a broad vitamin and mineral spread — the sugar and fat here are entirely what's naturally in milk, not added.
Cereal
Kellogg's Corn Flakes (Original) — Kellogg's (imported & distributed by Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd, 101 Vinayalankara Mawatha, Colombo). Genuinely low in sugar and fat, but sodium is the catch — at 492mg/100g it runs higher than any biscuit in this set, and the 90%-corn flakes still carry a wheat and barley allergen declaration.
Spreads
Kist Premium Strawberry Jam — Kist (Cargills Food & Beverages, No. 40, York Street, Colombo; product of Sri Lanka). Sugar is the first ingredient and strawberry the second, putting 58g of sugar in every 100g — though the 20g serving the label works to keeps that to 11.66g, under half an adult's daily limit.
Kist Mixed Fruit Jam — Kist (Cargills; product of Sri Lanka). Sugarier than the strawberry jam at 63g per 100g, and the fruit doing most of the work is melon — it leads pineapple, mango and passion fruit in the ingredient list despite not appearing on the front of the jar.
Nutella (Hazelnut Spread with Cocoa) — Ferrero (Exc. Dist. Ferrero U.S.A., Inc., Parsippany, NJ 07054; made in Canada). Sugar is the first ingredient and palm oil the second, ahead of the hazelnuts — 19 of the 21g of sugar in a two-tablespoon serving is added, roughly three-quarters of an adult's daily limit.