Added sugar vs total sugar
Total sugars and added sugars are two different measurements of the same pack, and a product can look very different depending on which one you read. The gap between them is usually the most informative number on the panel.
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The difference
Total sugars counts every sugar molecule in the food, no matter how it got there. That includes lactose in milk, fructose in fruit, and the sugar in a date paste - alongside anything a manufacturer added.
Added sugars counts only what was put in during manufacturing: table sugar, glucose syrup, invert syrup, honey, jaggery, fruit juice concentrate used as a sweetener, and the rest. It is a narrower figure and a more deliberate one.
| Product | Total sugars | Added sugars | What the gap tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain milk | High | None | All of it is lactose that was always there. |
| Sweetened yoghurt | High | Substantial | Some is dairy sugar; the rest was added. |
| Fruit-and-nut muesli | Moderate | Low or none | Most of it came in with the dried fruit. |
| Frosted cereal | High | High | The two figures nearly match - little of it was inherent. |
Why the added figure gets more weight
Public health guidance is more specific about added sugar than about sugar in general. The World Health Organization's recommendation targets free sugars - broadly, sugar added to food plus sugar naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juice - suggesting they stay under 10% of energy intake, and noting further benefit below 5%. It does not make the same recommendation about the lactose in milk or the sugar inside a whole fruit.
That is why the Filtizy score weights added sugar more heavily than total sugar rather than scoring one and ignoring the other. The exact weights and thresholds are published on the methodology page.
Claims that sound similar and are not
- "No added sugar" means nothing was put in. The food can still be high in total sugars - a fruit juice is the standard example.
- "Sugar free" is a threshold claim about total sugars, not a claim about what was added. In India it requires the food to be at or below 0.5g of sugars per 100g or 100ml.
- "Unsweetened" is not a regulated nutrition claim in the way the two above are. Check the panel.
- "Naturally occurring sugars only" tells you about origin, not quantity.
A pack that is honest about a high added-sugar figure is giving you more to work with than one that publishes no ingredient detail at all. Missing data is not the same as a good result.
See it on real products
Every product page shows the same figures broken out, with the factor scores they produced.