Sugar on a food label is rarely called sugar. If it were, products marketing themselves as healthy or natural would have a much harder time doing so — because sugar would appear near the top of their ingredient lists, where consumers have learned to look for it.
Instead, sugar is split across multiple ingredient names, each of which individually appears lower in the list. Combined, they might constitute the dominant ingredient in the product. Separately, each one sits innocuously between more appealing-sounding components.
This is not an accident. It is a deliberate formulation and labelling strategy. And it is entirely legal.
How sugar splitting works
Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. The ingredient present in the greatest quantity appears first. Manufacturers know that consumers monitor the first few positions and are wary of products where sugar leads the list.
By using four or five different sugar sources — each adding sweetness and calories in slightly different ratios and functional properties — a manufacturer can ensure that no single sugar source ranks high enough to trigger concern. Glucose syrup, fructose, dextrose, and maltodextrin might each appear in positions 5, 7, 9, and 11 on an ingredient list. Combined, they may outweigh every other ingredient. Listed separately, each one seems like a minor addition.
“The ingredient list is designed to inform you. Sugar splitting is designed to ensure it doesn’t. Both goals can be legally achieved simultaneously.”
The complete list — 56 names for sugar on food labels
The following are all forms of added sugar you may encounter on food labels. Some are the same molecule under different names. Some have slightly different chemical structures but are metabolised similarly. All add sweetness and calories in ways your body processes as sugar.
The quick scan you can do on any label
You don’t need to memorise all 56 names. You need two simple pattern-recognition skills that cover the vast majority of cases.
Look for words ending in “-ose.” Glucose, fructose, dextrose, sucrose, maltose, lactose, galactose, levulose, trehalose — all sugars. If you see multiple -ose words in an ingredient list, add them together mentally.
Look for the words “syrup,” “juice concentrate,” “nectar,” and “malt.” These reliably indicate a sugar source regardless of what precedes them.
Count how many sugar aliases appear in the ingredient list. One is not unusual. Two begins to suggest significant sweetness. Three or more, appearing across multiple list positions, is a strong signal that sugar is the dominant functional ingredient in the product — regardless of where any single one sits in the list.
Then cross-check with the nutrition facts panel: total sugars per 100g. Under 5g is low. 5–10g is moderate. Over 10g is high. Over 20g — found in many “healthy” granolas, protein bars, flavoured yoghurts, and fruit drinks — is very high.
A note on “naturally occurring” vs “added” sugar
EU labelling currently requires declaration of total sugars but not consistently of added sugars separately. This matters because a plain yoghurt with 5g of naturally occurring lactose is meaningfully different from a flavoured yoghurt with 5g of added glucose syrup, even if both say “5g sugars” on the nutrition panel.
The ingredient list tells you this story. Plain yoghurt: milk, live cultures. Full stop. Flavoured yoghurt: milk, glucose syrup, fruit preparation (5%), modified starch, flavouring. The same number on the nutrition panel, a completely different product. The ingredient list is always more informative than the summary numbers.
Bookmark this page or screenshot the grid above. You don’t need to remember all 56 names — but having a reference when you’re reading a label in a shop takes this from interesting information to something practically useful. The goal is not to avoid sugar entirely. The goal is to know when you’re consuming it, in what amounts, under what name.
The same label tricks apply to supplements too.
Download the free Supplement Insider’s Checklist — 7 ingredients I’d never buy, written by someone who reads these labels professionally every day.
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