What you see isn't always what you get when it comes to packaging for food and drinks. Dieticians say a closer look at food labels may reveal some surprises about what you're actually feeding your family.

Carrie Maharaj is a registered dietician, and in her practice she sees a lot of people who think they're eating properly but are often misled by confusing nutrition labels.

"You don't want to focus on the front of the box, because there's a lot of stuff that can go on there that's not really regulated," she told CTV Consumerwatch reporter Eleanor Coopsammy.

"[Some consumers] just want to rely what a product looks like on the cover," she said. "I think we need to be educating people more. Don't look at the cover, look at the nutrition facts on the side of the box."

Maharaj pointed out a box of crackers with the word 'vegetable' in the name -- with pictures of vegetables on the front of the box. She said a closer inspection of the Nutrition Facts Table on the side and the list of ingredients reveals a different story.

"If there really was a lot of vegetables in there you'd see a high percentage of vitamin A and vitamin C, but here you see zero per cent vitamin A and zero per cent vitamin C in that product."

Maharaj says 20 to 40 per cent of your daily intake of a particular vitamin or nutrient is a lot and would be a good product to consider.

Don't bank on 'beverages'

Consumer Reports looked at labels for juice products, and found some are potentially confusing. Testers say if you see "cocktail," "beverage," or "drink," be warned because what your buying is probably not 100 per cent real juice.

"These drinks can contain as little as five per cent juice," said Consumer Reports' Jamie Hirsh. "Water and sweeteners, like high fructose corn syrup, can make up the rest."

Consumer Reports recommends looking for '100 per cent juice' or '100 per cent pure' on the label, or in the ingredients.

"These mean that you're getting pure juice, but you still want to read the label," said Hirsh. "Often juices are actually a blend and a lot of times you'll see that apple or grape juice is actually the first ingredient so you could end up getting more of these juices than the featured juice that you actually want."

Customer-service representatives at Tropicana and Ocean Spray told Consumer Reports that grape and apple juices add sweetness and make other juices like cranberry and pomegranate less tart.

"Some big juice companies, including Tropicana, Welch's and Ocean Spray have also come out with 'light' versions of the juices, which they tout as having less sugar and few calories," Hirsh said. "These are often regular juices diluted with water."

Diluting your drinks is something you can do yourself -- and save money, too -- with 100 per cent real juice you have purchased.

With a report from CTV's Eleanor Coopsammy.