In this guide, I'll show you what to look for on food labels, which ingredients are worth checking and how to make more confident choices without unnecessary restrictions.
1. Start with foods that don't need an ingredient list
Not everything you buy needs careful label reading. One of the easiest ways to simplify low FODMAP shopping is to start with foods that have no ingredients list or contain just one or two ingredients. Think rice, oats, fresh fruit and vegetables. These are generally easy to lookup in the Monash University Low FODMAP app to check suitable serving sizes.
2. Know which foods contain little or no FODMAPs
FODMAPs are types of carbohydrates, so foods that contain little or no carbohydrate are generally low FODMAP, even in larger serves. Examples include:
- Fresh, unseasoned meat, poultry, fish and eggs
- Plain oils and butter
- Many hard cheeses, such as cheddar and parmesan
These are foods you can usually add to your shopping trolley without needing to scrutinise the ingredient list for FODMAPs.
3. Look for certified low FODMAP products
One of the easiest ways to identify suitable packaged foods is to look for a recognised low FODMAP certification logo.
Monash University Low FODMAP Certified
Monash University laboratory tests foods to determine their FODMAP content. Products displaying its certification logo meet the program's low FODMAP criteria at the specified serving size.
FODMAP Friendly Certified
FODMAP Friendly independently tests foods for their FODMAP content. Certified products have been assessed as suitable at the specified serving size.
What about products labelled 'tummy friendly' or 'fructose friendly'?
Don’t be fooled by clever marketing. Terms like 'tummy friendly' and 'fructose friendly' aren't the same as recognised low FODMAP certification. Manufacturers can use these descriptions at their own discretion to market their products, but they don't necessarily mean a food is low FODMAP.
And remember, plenty of suitable supermarketfoods aren't certified. For some easy options, have a look at my guide to 10 Great Low FODMAP Supermarket Foods.
4. Understand how ingredient lists work
Now we start to delve into packaged foods that contain a number of ingredients. Starting at the top, work your way down the list and use your Monash app or dietitian notes to check the suitability of ingredients. This can take some time initally, but with time you'll become quite quick.
Australian food labels provide some useful clues when you're trying to work out whether a product is low FODMAP.
- Ingredients are listed in order of weight: Ingredients are listed from largest to smallest, based on their weight when the product is made. So, if wheat flour is the first ingredient, there's likely to be quite a lot of it. But if honey appears at the end of a long ingredient list, the amount in each serving may be very small. This is important because many ingredients that are high FODMAP in larger quantities have smaller low FODMAP serving sizes.
- Look for ingredient percentages: Some ingredients have a percentage listed beside them. For example: Tomatoes (75%), onion (3%), olive oil, salt, herbs. If you eat 50g of this sauce, you're getting approximately 1.5 g of onion. When you check the Monash University Low FODMAP app, you'll see that onion has a low FODMAP serving size of approximately 10g. So, based on the onion content alone, a 50g serve of this sauce would fall well within that limit.
Of course, this doesn't tell us the total FODMAP content of the sauce. But it does help you make a more informed decision rather than automatically putting the product back on the shelf.
Be cautious with food-scanning apps
Some apps scan ingredient lists and flag potentially high FODMAP ingredients. While they can be appear enticing, they have some important limitations.
Most scanning apps can't account for:
- Quantity: A tiny amount of honey or onion may be flagged as high FODMAP, even when the amount in your serving is unlikely to be a concern.
- Processing: Foods such as sourdough bread and soy sauce are FODMAP despite containing wheat. Scanning apps may flag them as unsuitable without accounting for how they're made.
- Serving size: Eating a tablespoon of sauce is very different from eating half a jar, but scanning apps don't always account for how much you're actually eating.
Relying on food-scanning apps could mean unnecessarily avoiding plenty of perfectly suitable foods, making your low FODMAP diet overly restrictive, less enjoyable and harder to follow. My advice? Use scanning apps as a guide only, not the final authority.
5. Ingredients to look out for on food labels:
Some ingredients are particulalry concentrated sources of FODMAPs and are worth checking more closely even when they appear in relatively small amounts.
Concentrated sources of Fructans & GOS:
These ingredients are often added to foods to increase their fibre content, improve texture or provide prebiotic benefits. You'll commonly find them in high-fibre cereals, muesli bars, protein bars, some yoghurts and products marketed for gut health.
- Inulin
- Chicory Root
- Fructo-oligosaccharides
- Galacto-oligosaccharides
High FODMAP sweeteners:
Some sweeteners can contribute significnalty to FODMAP content, including:
- high-fructose corn syrup
- Fructose (note: fructose is only high FODMAP in excess of glucose, so if glucose is listed prior to fructose on an ingredients list the fructose is not a concern)
- Fruit juice concentrates
- Prune juice
- Sorbitol (420)
- Mannitol (421)
- Isomalt (953)
- Maltitol (965)
- Lactitol (966)
- Xylitol (967)
- Erythritol (968)
Download my Label reading cheat sheet here
6. Gluten-free doesn't automatically mean low FODMAP
This is one of the most common misconceptionsI come across. Gluten is a protein while FODMAPs are carbohydrates. They're not the same thing. Wheat contains both gluten and fructans. So when someone with IBS feels better after removing wheat, it's usually the fructans, not the gluten that was the problem. Read more about the difference between gluten and fructans here.
Some gluten-free products contain ingredients that can contribute FODMAPs, including dried fruit, onion, garlic, inulin andcertain fruit concentrates. On the other hand, some foods containing gluten can be low FODMAP at appropriate serving sizes. For example, sourdough bread, soy sauce, specially processed wheat flour and small amounts of wheat flour in sauces.
Of course, people with coeliac disease must avoid gluten regardless of FODMAP content.
7. What about onion and garlic?
Onion and garlic are two of the ingredients people worry about most when following a low FODMAP diet.
And understandably so. They seem to appear in almost everything! You'll commonly find them in sauces, soups, stocks, marinades, seasoning mixes and dressings. They may be listed as onion, garlic, onion powder, garlic powder and dehydrated or rehydrated vegetables.
But, do you need to avoid every trace of onion and garlic? The answer is a resounding No.
We now know that onion and garlic have low FODMAP serving sizes, even though they're rich in fructans. For example, a sauce with onion listed as one of the first few ingredients is likely to contribute significantly more fructans than one where it appears right at the end of the ingredients list. And, using a tablespoon of sauce is very different from eating half a jar.
While not every product containing onion or garlic is suitable, you don't need to automatically reject every product containing a small amount listed near the end of the ingredients list.
Finding you need to be extremely strict with your low FODMAP diet?
You've learnt which ingredients to avoid, you're carefully checking food labels, and you're doing everything you think you're supposed to do. But you're still experiencing bloating, abdominal pain or unpredictable bowel habits. And even the smallest deviation from your diet seems to result in significant symptoms.
If this sounds familiar, you probably don't need another list of foods to avoid. As an IBS dietitian, I regularly work with people in this situation. We look beyond FODMAPs to understand what else might be influencing their symptoms, whether other food sensitivities are involved and what we can do to improve their tolerance.
The goal isn't to make you better at following restrictions. It's to help you manage your symptoms with more confidence and flexibility. Find out how I can help with you manage IBS better here
8. Are spices and flavourings low FODMAP?
Most commonly used herbs and spices are low FODMAP in typical culinary quantities. Ingredients such as basil, oregano, cumin, paprika, turmeric and pepper can generally be included.
But what happens when an ingredient list simply says 'spices' or 'flavourings'?
Understanding compound ingredients
Sometimes manufacturers combine several ingredients into one, known as a compound ingredient. These may be listed in brackets, for example, 'spices (paprika, thyme, cumin)'. Under Australian food labelling laws, some compound ingredients making up less than 5% of a product don't need every component individually listed (with the exception of declarable allergens).
Although this means we can't always know exactly what's included, if a compound ingredient makes up less than 5% of the product, any potential high FODMAP ingredient within it would represent only a small portion of that amount. Afterall, even onion and garlic have low FODMAP serving sizes. So the presence of a small amount within a spice blend or flavouring doesn't automatically make the finished product high FODMAP.
Again, context and quantity matter. Spices and flavourings are generally used in small amounts, and the type of product can provide useful clues about what's likely to be included. For example, flavouring in a strawberry yoghurt is likely to be strawberry.
My advice? I tell my patients that there's generally no need to avoid a product simply because the ingredient list includes 'spices' or 'flavourings'. Consider the type of food, the likely quantity and how much you're planning to eat.
9. What about additives, preservatives and allergen statements?
Most food additives and preservatives aren't a FODMAP concern. Colours, emulsifiers, acidity regulators and many preservatives don't contain meaningful amounts of FODMAPs. The main additives to check are certain polyol sweeteners, covered earlier.
What about allergen warnings?
Australian food labels must clearly declare certain allergens, including milk, wheat, soy, eggs and nuts, when they're present as ingredients.
However, an allergen warning doesn't teel us how much of the ingredient is present so it doesnt automatically mean a food is high FODMAP.
For example:
- Contains milk: Doesn't necessarily mean a product is high in lactose. Hard cheeses and lactose-free dairy products are good examples.
- Contains wheat: Wheat contains fructans, but small amounts of wheat ingredients may still be low FODMAP.
- Contains soy: Not all soy ingredients are high FODMAP. For example, soy sauce and firm tofu can be low FODMAP at suitable serving sizes.
What does 'may contain' mean?
Statements such as 'may contain milk, wheat, soy or nuts' refer to possible allergen cross-contact during manufacturing, rather than ingredients intentionally added to the product. They don't indicate whether a food is high or low FODMAP.
Of course, if you also have coeliac disease or a food allergy, the relevant allergen declarations and cross-contact warnings need to be considered separately.
Three things to remember when reading low FODMAP food labels
If you remember nothing else from this guide, make it these three things:
- An ingredient list doesn't tell you everything. Seeing honey, wheat, onion orgarlic doesn't automatically mean a product is unsuitable. The amount you're eating matters.
- You don't need to avoid every possible FODMAP. The goal is to reduce your overall FODMAP intake enough to help manage symptoms, not eliminate every trace.
- Your individual tolerance matters. The low FODMAP diet is a tool to help you understand your gut, not a list of rules to follow forever. Once you've identified which FODMAPs influence your symptoms, you can make choices based onyour own tolerance rather than a generic list.
When low FODMAP label reading becomes more complicated than it needs to be
Learning to read food labels can make following a low FODMAP diet much easier. But if you're spending forever scrutinising ingredients, avoiding more and more foods, or still struggling with symptoms despite following the diet carefully, it might be time to look at the bigger picture.
While sometimes all it takes is a better understanding of an ingredients list, other times it takes a little more investigation to understand what’s influencing your symptoms. And that's where I can help. FODMAPs are only one piece of the IBS puzzle. Other food sensitivities, meal patterns, gut-brain interactions and other factors can all influence your symptoms.
Ready to stop second-guessing every food choice? Find out how I can help you manage IBS here
