“No Added Sugar” vs “Sugar-Free” vs “Less Sugar”: What Singapore Snack Labels Actually Mean

Why the sugar on your snack label matters

You’re standing in the supermarket aisle, comparing two packs of biscuits. One says “No Added Sugar”, the other says “Less Sugar”. Both sound virtuous. But in Singapore these are not random marketing words — they are regulated nutrition claims with specific rules behind them. The catch is that the rules often mean something quite different from what shoppers assume. Here’s what each phrase really promises, so you can read the front of a snack pack without being misled.

Singaporeans still consume around 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, and more than a third of that comes from pre-packaged sugar-sweetened drinks alone, according to the Ministry of Health. That leaves plenty of room for snacks to quietly push us over the line. The Health Promotion Board’s dietary guidelines recommend keeping sugar to no more than 10% of daily energy — roughly 10 teaspoons (about 50g) for a 2,000-calorie diet, with a further drop to 5 teaspoons (25g) bringing additional benefit.

One distinction is worth holding onto. “Added sugar” is sugar put into food during manufacturing, cooking or at the table. “Free sugars” — the term the guidelines actually target — is broader: it covers those added sugars plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices. That difference is exactly where snack claims get slippery.

“No Added Sugar” does not mean “no sugar”

Under Singapore’s labelling guide, a “No Added Sugar” (or “Without Added Sugar”) claim means no free sugars — and no ingredients containing free sugars, such as honey, malt or malt extract — have been added during processing. Sounds airtight. But two things can still be true of that pack.

First, it can still contain naturally occurring sugars. A fruit-and-nut bar with no added sugar can be loaded with sugar from dates or raisins. Second, the same claim explicitly allows sugar alcohols and sweetening substances — so a “no added sugar” snack may be sweetened with artificial or bulk sweeteners instead. If you want a stricter promise, look for “Unsweetened”, which means no free sugars, no sweetening substances and no sugar alcohols were added at all.

“Sugar-Free” is the one with a hard number

“Sugar-Free” (or “Free of Sugar”) is the most concrete of the three. In Singapore it may only be used when a food contains no more than 0.5g of sugars per 100g (or per 100ml for liquids). So a genuinely sugar-free cracker really does have almost none — but note it says nothing about total carbohydrates, fat or salt, which can all still be high. A sugar-free label is a statement about one nutrient, not a health halo for the whole product.

“Low Sugar” vs “Less Sugar”: the trap most shoppers miss

These two look almost identical on a shelf, but they mean very different things.

“Low Sugar” (also “Low in Sugar”, “Lite in Sugar”) is an absolute threshold: no more than 5g of sugars per 100g, or 2.5g per 100ml, or 2g per serving. It tells you the product genuinely sits at the lower end.

“Less Sugar” (also “Reduced Sugar”, “Lower Sugar”) is only relative: it means at least 25% less sugar than a reference product. That’s the trap. If the original snack was very sweet, a version with 25% less can still be a sugary snack — it’s just less sugary than its own regular sibling. “Less” is a comparison, not a verdict.

The 30-second habit that beats any front-of-pack claim

Every one of these claims must, by regulation, be backed by the Nutrition Information Panel on the pack — and HPB is clear that nutrition claims have to be verifiable, not just persuasive. So the front label is a shortcut; the back is the truth. Flip the pack over and check the total sugar per 100g. Using the per-100g column (rather than per-serving) lets you compare two products fairly, because brands can quietly shrink the “serving” to make the per-serving sugar look smaller. As a rough guide, 5g or less per 100g is genuinely low; anything creeping toward the double digits deserves a second look, whatever the front of the pack says.

None of this means sugar is the enemy or that you need to fear every treat. It just means the words on the front were designed to be read carefully — and now you can.

Snacking savoury, not sweet

If the sugar maths is what nudges you, savoury snacks sidestep the whole question. Our HexaCrunch baked brown-rice crackers are built for crunch and protein rather than sweetness — they’re baked, not fried, and get their protein boost from sustainably farmed cricket flour, so you’re snacking on something with staying power instead of a sugar hit. Curious how they taste? The Try-All 3-Pack is an easy, low-commitment way to find your flavour.

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