TempoLife › Features › Video explainers › reading-a-nutrition-label

The one column people read wrong on a label

The viewer stops comparing a per-100g column to a per-portion column, which is the most common shopping error there is.

There are no videos here yet, and this page does not pretend otherwise. TempoLife has published no explainer videos, so nothing on this surface is watchable and there is no player anywhere on it. What is published is the script library: the full storyboard for each explainer, ready to shoot.

The hook

“This packet says 130 calories. It contains a lot more than 130.”

First four seconds. It states the surprise outright rather than promising one, because a promise is a reason to scroll and a surprise is a reason to stay.

Why this topic is worth 70 seconds

A label is a promise: per 100 g and per portion, in a fixed order. Once a viewer sees that structure once, they see it on every packet forever.

The reason we lead with per-100-g is portability. It is the only number that lets you compare a 55 g biscuit to a 250 g yoghurt without doing sums on the shelf.

Salt and saturates are where a supposedly healthy choice quietly loses. Naming that in the script gives the viewer one thing to check next time they shop.

European labels carry two columns and shoppers read whichever one is more flattering, usually without noticing. The per-portion column is defined by the manufacturer and the portion is frequently smaller than anyone eats.

This is the most immediately actionable script in the set: it changes a behaviour in the shop, this week, with no calculation required beyond checking which column you are looking at.

The storyboard

Read it as a script

The voiceover column, in order, is the whole piece:

This packet says 130 calories. It contains a lot more than 130.

Turn it over. There are two columns: per 100 grams, and per portion. Only one of them is standardised, and it is not the friendly one.

The portion size is chosen by the manufacturer. It can be a third of the bag. The per-100-gram column is the one you can compare between products, because everyone has to use it.

So weigh the bag, or read the net weight, and multiply. The figure that matters is what you will eat, not what the packet nominated.

The percentage column assumes a two-thousand-calorie day. If your day is not two thousand calories, the percentages are not yours either.

Compare on per 100 grams. Count on what you actually eat.

Every number this script shows

The per-100 g versus per-portion beat, using a 175 g bag.

Nothing in the storyboard above quotes a figure directly. The beats refer to numbers and this table supplies them, so a script written months ago cannot go stale against its own data.

Production notes

• Use a generic unbranded packet or a plain bowl. Do not put a real brand on screen — the point is the column, not the product.
• The scales beat needs a real weigh-in shot; a graphic will not carry the same conviction.
• Hold the two-column frame long enough to read both. Four seconds minimum.

Closing card

Look up what you actually ate at tempolife.app/calories

General information, not medical advice. These scripts describe averages across populations; nothing in them is a diagnosis or a treatment recommendation.

Source: Figures computed from the TempoLife food database (USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy) and the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities · checked 2026-09-02

What the script points at

• Reading nutrition labels
• Food database
• Potato chips

Other scripts

All scripts · Listen to the guides