Pork skin question

FL_Hiker

Hi,
I bought this bag of pork skins, I’m trying to get more protein (was looking for cheaper options) but on the back of the bag it says “not a significant source of protein”. 80 calories and 7g doesn’t seem like that would be the case (also the entire bag was only $2!)? Why exactly did they put this??
Thanks

Carneyje3

Never seen anything like that, but found a thread on reddit discussing almost the exact same thing (pork rinds that had the same disclaimer). Copy and pasted the most useful comment I saw:

"From the FDA: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.9

7) "Protein": A statement of the number of grams of protein in a serving, expressed to the nearest gram [...] When the protein in foods represented or purported to be for adults and children 4 or more years of age has a protein quality value that is a protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score of less than 20 expressed as a percent, or when the protein in a food represented or purported to be for children greater than 1 but less than 4 years of age has a protein quality value that is a protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score of less than 40 expressed as a percent, either of the following shall be placed adjacent to the declaration of protein content by weight: The statement "not a significant source of protein," or a listing aligned under the column headed "Percent Daily Value" of the corrected amount of protein per serving, as determined in paragraph (c)(7)(ii) of this section, calculated as a percentage of the Daily Reference Value (DRV) or Reference Daily Intake (RDI), as appropriate, for protein and expressed as Percent of Daily Value. When the protein quality in a food as measured by the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) is less than 40 percent of the reference standard (casein) for a food represented or purported to be for infants, the statement "not a significant source of protein" shall be placed adjacent to the declaration of protein content.

In other words, the amino acid composition of pork rinds sucks. PDCAAS is the gold standard used here, which essentially compares the quality of the protein to milk protein. Pork rinds (being largely collagen) are full of fairly useless amino acids and severely lacking in a lot of the important ones."

FL_Hiker

Ah gotcha, thanks. So basically no point in taking their protein content into account?

lynn_glenmont

FL_Hiker wrote: »

Ah gotcha, thanks. So basically no point in taking their protein content into account?

Are you planning on getting all of your protein from pork skins? Most people's diets don't consist of a single food, and judging a food as "nutritious" for you outside of the context of your entire diet is irrational.

Is an orange good for me? Yes, if I haven't had enough vitamin C today. But if I have, and I'm really low on fat, a tablespoon of butter would actually be more nutritious for me at that time.

Pork skins aren't especially high in the essential amino acids, but they're not devoid of them either. And your body can use nonessential amino acids, too. If you're getting protein from a variety of sources, you're probably OK. If you want to dig down into it and look at the amino acid profiles of everything you eat to see how it all adds up, then you might have some useful data. Focusing on the amino acid profile for 80 calories out of your whole day? Not so much.

But if you insist...


Snacks, pork skins, plain

Amino Acids Per 100 g
Tryptophan g 0.118
Threonine g 1.823
Isoleucine g 1.382
Leucine g 3.322
Lysine g 2.783
Methionine g 0.480
Cystine g 0.529
Phenylalanine g 1.940
Tyrosine g 1.205
Valine g 2.421
Arginine g 4.841
Histidine g 0.725
Alanine g 5.811
Aspartic acid g 4.469
Glutamic acid g 7.625
Glycine g 11.917
Proline g 7.262
Serine g 2.597

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/19041?n1={Qv=1}&fgcd=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=25&sort=default&qlookup=Snacks,+pork+skins,+plain&offset=&format=Full&new=&measureby=&Qv=1&ds=SR&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=