The Big Picture
Food labels give information that helps with healthy eating and special diets. They also help you compare foods and check what ingredients a product contains.
Food also affects quality of life in long-term care. Clients need food that meets their dietary and nutritional needs, and staff need to keep track of how well clients eat.
Look for Nova Scotia CCA Notes throughout this page for current provincial guidance.
Quick tip: Tap, click, or press Enter on any term with a dotted underline and an ⓘ icon to see its plain-English definition.
Start Here If You’re Overwhelmed
Focus on these core ideas:
- Food labels have three main parts: ingredients, nutrition facts, and nutrition claims.
- Ingredient lists help you compare products and check for ingredients linked to an allergy or intolerance.
- The Nutrition Facts Table gives calories and information about 13 nutrients.
- A daily value (DV) shows how one serving fits into an adult’s daily diet.
- Long-term care meals must meet each client’s dietary and nutritional needs.
- Staff document how well each client eats after each meal.
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Course Notes: Key Ideas You Need to Know
Food Labels Have Three Main Parts
Food labels help with planning a healthy diet. They also help people follow special diets ordered by physicians, dietitians, or nurses.
Nutrition labels are mandatory on packaged food.
Food labels contain three main components:
- a list of ingredients
- nutrition facts
- nutrition claims
The List of Ingredients
The ingredient list usually starts with the ingredient found in the largest quantity. The remaining ingredients appear in descending order according to how much of each ingredient the food contains.
You can use ingredient lists to compare products. For example, one product might list wheat flour first, while another lists bran first.
Ingredient lists also help you check for ingredients that a client has an allergy or intolerance to.
An allergy is a sensitivity to a substance that causes the body to react with signs or symptoms.
The Nutrition Facts Table
The Nutrition Facts Table contains information about calories and 13 nutrients. These nutrients include fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
Nutrients are substances that the body takes in, digests, absorbs, and uses.
A calorie is a unit used to measure the energy produced when the body burns food.
Understanding Daily Value
The daily value (DV) shows how one serving of food fits into an adult’s daily diet.
DV appears as a percentage. It uses recommended daily intake based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
Nutrition Claims
Food manufacturers sometimes place nutrition claims on their products. Examples include claims such as “low in fat” or “high in fibre.”
These nutrition claims must meet government requirements.
Allowed diet-related health claims include:
- A healthy diet low in sodium and high in potassium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
- A healthy diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
- A healthy diet low in saturated fat and trans fat may reduce the risk of heart disease.
- A healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruit may reduce the risk of some types of cancer.
Read Nutrition Claims Carefully
It is important to read the whole food label instead of relying on one claim.
For example, a manufacturer might describe a product as having “controlled” or “decreased” fat. That wording can be misleading if the label does not show how much the fat level has decreased, or whether it has decreased at all.
Be careful with products labelled “controlled sugar” or “added sugar.”
Some foods labelled “light,” “lite,” “fat-free,” or “sugar-free” may be higher in another ingredient, such as starches, thickeners, or sodium.
Food and Quality of Life in Long-Term Care
Food plays an important part in a long-term care client’s quality of life.
Legislation ensures that each client’s dietary and nutritional needs are met.
It also ensures that:
- meals are nourishing, tasty, attractive, and well balanced
- hot food is served hot
- cold food is served cold
- clients receive special diets when needed
- clients receive special eating utensils when needed
Special Eating Utensils
Disease or injury may affect a client’s hands, wrists, or arms.
Special eating utensils help these clients eat with minimum assistance.
Dining With Guests
Some long-term care facilities allow clients to eat meals with guests.
Guests may include:
- spouses
- partners
- family members
- friends
The dietary department may provide the guest’s meal. The visitor may also bring the meal.
Tracking How Well a Client Eats
Staff are responsible for documenting how well each client has eaten after each meal.
This information usually goes into the client’s record. Recording it allows the client’s eating habits to be tracked and reported to the rest of the health care team.
Nova Scotia CCA Note
Sorrentino’s Canadian Textbook for the Support Worker, 5th Edition describes meal quality, special diets, eating aids, and tracking how well a client eats. Current Nova Scotia requirements for licensed nursing homes and residential care facilities are more specific. They require processes for identifying and communicating residents’ food allergies, preferences, therapeutic diets, food textures, supplements, and food contraindications.
Nova Scotia also requires food and drinks to be provided at safe, comfortable, and palatable temperatures according to individual needs. Meal, supplement, and fluid intake must be tracked and monitored as required. Residents who need help eating or drinking safely must have appropriate assistive devices and eating aids. Dining should support residents’ enjoyment, safety, comfort, independence, dignity, and social interaction.
Why this matters in Nova Scotia: These are current provincial requirements for licensed nursing homes and residential care facilities, so they give more detail than Sorrentino’s broader long-term care summary.
Official source: Long-Term Care Program Requirements: Nursing Homes & Residential Care Facilities (novascotia.ca)
Last checked: September 19, 2026
Exam Clue Words
- Must: Nutrition claims made by food manufacturers must meet government requirements.
- Each: Long-term care requirements apply to each client’s dietary and nutritional needs.
- Document: Staff document how well each client has eaten after each meal.
Fast Review
Use these points for a quick review before a quiz or exam. Focus on the facts that separate the different parts of food labels and the main long-term care requirements.
- Food labels have three components: ingredients, nutrition facts, and nutrition claims.
- Ingredients usually appear in descending order, starting with the ingredient present in the largest quantity.
- Ingredient lists help compare products and check for ingredients connected with an allergy or intolerance.
- The Nutrition Facts Table contains calories and information about 13 nutrients, including fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
- Daily value (DV) appears as a percentage and shows how one serving fits into an adult’s daily diet.
- DV uses recommended daily intake based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
- Nutrition claims such as “low in fat” and “high in fibre” must meet government requirements.
- Labels such as “light,” “fat-free,” or “sugar-free” do not tell you everything about the food. Another ingredient may be higher.
- Long-term care meals must meet each client’s dietary and nutritional needs and include nourishing, tasty, attractive, well-balanced food.
- Hot food is served hot, and cold food is served cold.
- Special diets and special eating utensils are provided when needed.
- Staff document how well each client eats after each meal so eating habits can be tracked and reported to the health care team.
Final Pep Talk
There are several food-label details to remember, so focus first on the three label components and what each one tells you. Then review the long-term care points until you can separate meal requirements from food-intake documentation.