If you're counting kilojoules/calories, you might find this information helpful

sahux1

Just to let you know that food manufacturers often increase the amount of food in a packet/can/container, more than what's stated. So your can of 100g or whatever may contain more food than you expect. The reason they do this is because of variations in manufacturing processes, they are aiming for a particular proportion of a production run will have a container with less than what is stated on the label. Unfortunately the percentage increase varies, it's no fixed value.

So if you're using exact numbers as much as possible, don't be surprised if your intake number is off, resulting in your subsequent calculations being off as well.

TimothyFish

You might also be surprised to find out that two fruits of the same type and having the same weight can vary significantly in how many calories they have.

Nony_Mouse

sahux1 wrote: »

Just to let you know that food manufacturers often increase the amount of food in a packet/can/container, more than what's stated. So your can of 100g or whatever may contain more food than you expect. The reason they do this is because of variations in manufacturing processes, they are aiming for a particular proportion of a production run will have a container with less than what is stated on the label. Unfortunately the percentage increase varies, it's no fixed value.

So if you're using exact numbers as much as possible, don't be surprised if your intake number is off, resulting in your subsequent calculations being off as well.

This is why it's generally recommended to weigh all of your food if possible, even if it's a single serving straight out of a packet or something that's easy to work out the servings, like bread (case in point, nutritional label on my bread lists a serving as two slices weighing 84g, this week my two slices have been consistently 96-97g).

livingleanlivingclean

sahux1 wrote: »

Just to let you know that food manufacturers often increase the amount of food in a packet/can/container, more than what's stated. So your can of 100g or whatever may contain more food than you expect. The reason they do this is because of variations in manufacturing processes, they are aiming for a particular proportion of a production run will have a container with less than what is stated on the label. Unfortunately the percentage increase varies, it's no fixed value.

So if you're using exact numbers as much as possible, don't be surprised if your intake number is off, resulting in your subsequent calculations being off as well.

Thats why you weigh your food...

malibu927

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

sahux1 wrote: »

Just to let you know that food manufacturers often increase the amount of food in a packet/can/container, more than what's stated. So your can of 100g or whatever may contain more food than you expect. The reason they do this is because of variations in manufacturing processes, they are aiming for a particular proportion of a production run will have a container with less than what is stated on the label. Unfortunately the percentage increase varies, it's no fixed value.

So if you're using exact numbers as much as possible, don't be surprised if your intake number is off, resulting in your subsequent calculations being off as well.

This is why it's generally recommended to weigh all of your food if possible, even if it's a single serving straight out of a packet or something that's easy to work out the servings, like bread (case in point, nutritional label on my bread lists a serving as two slices weighing 84g, this week my two slices have been consistently 96-97g).

This. In the US, manufacturers are allowed to be off by as much as 20%.

trigden1991

We can only do our best by choosing consistent entries, selecting USDA approved entries and weighing. The law of averages is that once you do it long enough, the errors average out.