The Keyhole label

The Norwegian dietary guidelines describe what you should eat to stay healthy. A healthy diet includes foods like whole or sliced fruit, berries, vegetables and potatoes, pulses (like beans and lentils), whole grains, and fillets of fish or lean cuts of meat. This can help you follow the dietary guidelines.

The dietary guidelines recommend you to limit the intake of foods that contain high amounts of saturated fat, salt and sugar. The Keyhole label can guide you to this when you are shopping groceries.

Why choose the Keyhole?

The Keyhole helps you to find a healthier version of the same type of food. It’s not always easy to see which bread or fish cake is the healthier one – that’s when the Keyhole label can help.

Compared to similar foods without the Keyhole, foods with the label contain:

• More fibre and whole grains
• Less saturated fat, sugar and salt

Some products may also contain more vegetables, fruit or berries.

Not all foods can get the Keyhole label. There are limits for how much salt, sugar and saturated fat a product can contain, and minimum levels for fibre and whole grain.

If you choose a product with the Keyhole, you can be sure it’s a healthier choice.

There are a lot of Keyhole-labelled foods available, so you don’t need to change what you eat. Continue to make your regular meals, just swap to Keyhole products when shopping.

Which foods can have the Keyhole?

To get the Keyhole, a food must meet one or more requirements for fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt, fibre and whole grains, depending on the type of food. The criteria are different for each food group.

For example, a breakfast cereal with the Keyhole label has less sugar and more whole grain than one without it.

For meat products, the focus is on fat and salt. Bread must meet requirements for fibre, whole grain, fat, sugar and salt. Some food groups also have rules for the amount of vegetables, fruit and berries.

A product can't get the Keyhole label just because it's the healthiest in its category – it must meet the Keyhole criteria, no matter what the other products are like.

These foods can get the Keyhole label:

• Vegetables, fruit, berries and nuts
• Flour, grains and rice
• Porridge, bread and pasta
• Milk, fermented dairy products and plant-based alternatives
• Cheese and plant-based alternatives
• Fats and oils
• Fish, shellfish and products made from them
• Meat, cold cuts, sausages, etc.
• Plant-based products
• Ready meals
• Dressings and sauces

Products like soft drinks, sweets, cakes and biscuits cannot use the Keyhole.

The use of the Keyhole-label is voluntary. It’s up to the food producers to decide if they want to use it on their products or not. So, some products may meet the requirements without being labelled with the Keyhole.

Where to find the Keyhole label

You’ll find the Keyhole label on the food packaging. It can also be used on unpackaged or unwrapped bread, meat and cheese. All fresh fish, fruit, berries, vegetables and potatoes are Keyhole foods, even if they don’t have the label.

Backed by health authorities

The Keyhole is a joint Nordic labelling system. The food groups and rules for the label are set together by health authorities in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.

In Norway, the Directorate of Health and the Food Safety Authority are responsible for the label. It’s voluntary to use the label, but producers must follow the rules if they label their products with the Keyhole. The Food Safety Authority controls that the rules are followed.