Misleading FALSE Serving Size

Loisandrev

Today I bought a Marketside Cobb Ranch Salad at Walmart. It was individually wrapped like it was ONE SERVING. When I got it home it said 4 servings. If I would have ate it it would be 520 cals. About a week ago I was at Walmart and my husband wanted the chicken bites they serve in the deli in an individual cup. Guess how many servings were in this 1 little cup? It had 2 and YES it was disguised as one. Also, I have seen muffins individually wrapped the are 3 SERVINGS EACH. I have been trying to focus on serving size and teach my kids what's a serving size.It's very misleading. IT"S FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!!!! I think this is one of the major reasons people are overweight. We are falsely led to believe we are eating one serving when it really is MORE. I think the FDA should not only make labels required but they must go one step further and put in bold letters 4SERVINGS. Has anyone else found misleading packaged items?????

lilmom1

Sure doll how about a individual bottle of diet or regular soda...read again by fluid oz....what a crock!

Amarillo_NDN

Yeppers, they try to be sneaky but at the same time stay legal. I was going to be a diet frozen dinner and was looking at the labels. I notice my old brand that I eat before watching sugars and calories, was less than the one Labeled "Light" diet meal.

KeriA

Thanks I will do a better job of watching for that now on!

cynthiaj777

Congress is considering passing a new FDA regulation that requires serving sizes on labels to resemble what people actually eat.

If you want to eat the whole muffin, instead of saying it is 120 calories per serving, but it is 2 servings, the requirement would be for the package to read 1 serving for 240 calories.

It is VERY misleading to have so many servings in a single package. And I agree it is one reason why people are so overweight. Portion sizes in the restaurants are also quite larger than they used to be. Just more calories.

LuckySue333

I agree false advertising on labels.... You have to read everything and measure to make sure its accurate... Are you will be eating too many caloreis... And portions...

Loisandrev

So true ---- restaurants do the same. People actually have gotten use to large servings and complain when given less.

godblessourhome

one third of one second is a serving size for a spray of pam. i find that hilarious.

KarenBorter

PF Changs and some other restaurants put their nutrition data online and some people believe that the meal they are being served is 1 serving. I found out recently that in some instances you are getting 3-4 servings per dish therefore you have to multiply the calories by 3 or 4 ... VERY misleading. Read your labels people!

turbojanem

yes, packaging is very misleading. those selling don't care. if they have you hooked because of the HFCS or yummy taste, they will sell you more. look at wonderful McD's that super-sizes! it is sad that all they care about is their bottom line and making a buck.

when i started eating almost every one of my meals in our home or made in our home, i started to notice a BIG change in my weight and body shape.

why should the government decide for us? we are humans with our own brains who (most of us) know how to read. we can educate ourselves and do what we each needs to to. nobody else is going to fight for us. and they shouldn't have to.

making healthy choices empowers us to make more healthy choices and forces us to educate ourselves.

lyndsloo

In response to the Pam comment....

Hahahahaha this totally just made my day!

ambercole

Why don't they just package 1 serving as 1 serving instead.

RaggedyPond

Or has anybody noticed that dinner plates are getting bigger? My grandmother's dinner plates are the size of our saucers today. I just got some plates from Walmart and they are huge! Even the cereal bowls are huge! Talk about encouraging over eating..

cynthiaj777

Why don't they just package 1 serving as 1 serving instead.

I agree, make the packages to represent one serving, but that's kind of the point of making the serving count as 1 with more calories like I said.

KarenBorter

why should the government decide for us? we are humans with our own brains who (most of us) know how to read. we can educate ourselves and do what we each needs to to. nobody else is going to fight for us. and they shouldn't have to.

making healthy choices empowers us to make more healthy choices and forces us to educate ourselves.

I don't think it's a matter of the government choosing for us, I think it's a matter of what we have gotten used to and how misleading packaging can be. I think it's a good thing that the FDA is going to require this. Many people have blamed misleading packaging for their weight issues. It's taxing ...

You know, they say "do not take internally" for certain medications because common sense didn't exist and someone took it internally then sued. Being that we are in a litigious society it stands to reason that the FDA would require this. Sure more of "us" have common sense ... but some people don't and literally have to be lead by the hand to do the right thing.

cynthiaj777

yes, packaging is very misleading. those selling don't care. if they have you hooked because of the HFCS or yummy taste, they will sell you more. look at wonderful McD's that super-sizes! it is sad that all they care about is their bottom line and making a buck.

when i started eating almost every one of my meals in our home or made in our home, i started to notice a BIG change in my weight and body shape.

why should the government decide for us? we are humans with our own brains who (most of us) know how to read. we can educate ourselves and do what we each needs to to. nobody else is going to fight for us. and they shouldn't have to.

making healthy choices empowers us to make more healthy choices and forces us to educate ourselves.

Put nicely, because people are stupid. People don't realize it nor do they pay enough attention. Hello the most obese country in the world. It is in the best interest of the people for the government to regulate how food companies advertise their food.

I'd rather look at a package, see 1 servings and it read 460 calories rather than 2.5 servings at 184 calories a piece and have to take my phone out to count carories. It is counterintuitive and counterproductive.

cynthiaj777

Or has anybody noticed that dinner plates are getting bigger? My grandmother's dinner plates are the size of our saucers today. I just got some plates from Walmart and they are huge! Even the cereal bowls are huge! Talk about encouraging over eating..

I have noticed this, and "they" say to eat on small plates for this reason.

Nikiki

I agree! I've seen candy bars, muffins, sandwiches ect... all listed as 2-3 servings, ex: have you seen the crystal light packets that are "half a packet" as a serving? crazy!
it should be a law that if it appears to be packaged as a single serving the full calories for the entire thing should be listed. I understand that we should be able to use our brains and read the label in detail but so many of these are "convenience products" meant for grab & go and when I'm in a hurry I dont have time to analyze a label to see if they're trying to be misleading.

and as for the pam one, my (non-pam) olive oil spray shows 0 calories for a 1/3 second spray, but NO answer for how many calories in say a 1 second, or 5 second spray. I use that when cooking meats a lot and definitely go over the 1/3 second!

suzikelley

Yes!!! My friend was just complaining the other day that she chose to eat a Michaelina's frozen entree because of the calories it advertised -- then (after she ate it) she looked a little closer to the nutritional info and her ONE frozen entree was actually 1.5 servings!! Really?! Who eats 2/3 of a frozen dinner and puts 1/3 back in the fridge for later??? Crazy misleading!!! I hope the FDA does change the way things are labeled!!

katerinab

I just noticed that on the small packs of M&Ms in the checkout aisles of the grocery store, they have in big letters on the front "SHARING SIZE, 2 SERVINGS." It's nice that they made it blatant, but I would really love the individual serving sized items to actually BE individual servings.

Marie Callendar meals are really bad about it. Who's gonna eat just half of the small pot pie? No one. They're gonna eat the whole thing and then want to go all bullemic and vomit it back up when they realize they've just ingested almost a day's worth of calories. If I'm gonna eat that much in one shot, I'd rather raid the Dairy Queen than eat one of those.

The manufacturers are all afraid that their serving sizes will look dinky, but hey, serving sizes of high fat/cal items are SUPPOSED to be small. I buy individual serving sized items because I need the help with portion control. Please don't give me two servings when I truly only want one.

dgroulx

one third of one second is a serving size for a spray of pam. i find that hilarious.

LOL! How do you do that?

Ready4Changes

I have also seen this. I have to be areful when buying stuff.

Ready4Changes

I have also seen this. I have to be areful when buying stuff.

islandnutshel

I love measuring out a serving of cereal. Do you realy think that 3/4 of a cup of dry cereal is going to keep me full till lunch? NOT going to happen. (Adding a banana or strawberries bulk it up a little. )

Mkserpa

Everything is misleading!!! I will first check the calories on something like a salad from my work (I work in a grocery store), "Oh 250 isn't bad at all for this!" then scan up a bit and read "3 servings! OMG!!!!!" INSANE!!!

amietest

This is why I really like
- laughing cow cheese wedges instead of normal cream cheese - a wedge is a wedge, you use it and that's the calories.
- hot pocket breakfasts - one pocket, one breakfast
- McDonald's happy meals with a hamburger, apple slices and diet coke. the calories are the calories.

Beebee78

It makes me realise how lucky we are in the UK - packaging over here is very clearly labelled with serving size and nutritional information making it very easy for consumers to make sensible purchases xxx

diverdi

It happens a bit even here in the UK (although I've not seen anything as daft as a muffin listed as 2-3 servings!)
A few months ago I stumbled across some pots of cousous in Tesco, calories per serving 60. I though this was great, bought loads and had them for lunch most days, and then I looked a little closer and saw that that was per serving size of 1 tablespoon, how the hell are you meant to work out how much you're getting based on that?!

Kate_UK

Companies are well aware that many consumers are looking more closely at food lables before buying. So when they work out how many caloris are in a single muffin for example, and realise that its very high, they know no health conscious person is going to buy it if they think they are consuming half a days calories in one bite. so they put 'good' looking values into the lable and then in the small print say that that is for just a 1/3 of the cake. Just to to make thier goods apear to be more healthy, and hopfully the consumer won't look too closely. Very annoying!:devil:

jlorton82

Soup cans or individual soup packets that you mix with water...they are also misleading. Most soups are about 3.5 servings. Gotta be careful with that. I agree that labels should be required. There is alot stuff that people dont realize they are eating. There is enough sodium in deli sandwiches that are advertised as healthy for you to go over a daily limit by eating half of it. Gotta check everything these days.

JJs25th

This is such a pain in the !@#! I cut a muffin into 4ths the other day and my 21 year old son (who has no weight issues) asked why. When I explained that what I took was the listed serving size he was floored to realize he had been eating 4 servings each morning for breakfast. I too think it should be illegal -- if it is packaged to imply that it should be consummed in one sitting -- it is one serving and should be labled as such.