Do some companies just lie about serving sizes?

jessthep1rate

I know I probably sound crazy saying that, but I have been weighing my food for months now, and it seems to me that some companies must lie about the serving sizes of their foods because there are definitely a good handful of foods I have weighed and found one serving in weight significantly smaller than the non-weight serving size (in cups/tbsp/pieces, whatever). It doesn't happen all of the time, but it has happened enough to make me think. Most of the time I just shrug it off and eat the serving by weight (or if it's not too high in calories, I might just have 1.5 or 2 servings anyhow), figuring whatever, it's not 100%, otherwise no one would have to weigh! But tonight I made a box of Annie's mac & cheese, and the serving size on the box was 71 grams, or about 1 cup. Well, I portioned out 71 grams on my food scale, and there was NO WAY that was a cup, so I measured it, and it was less than 1/2 cup! (not packed in, either)

Anyone else find this? I find it super frustrating!

MelodyandBarbells

I never paid much mind to the notes on cereal boxes and the likes. They explain that the nutritional information is based on weight, not volume as the contents could settle differently from box to box. I once read that nutritional information was allowed to be as much as 20% off or some such thing :ohwell:

ltlemermaid

Did you weigh the mac& cheese before cooking it or after? 1 cup serving would most likely be for cooked pasta and not the dry weight.

jessthep1rate

It was cooked, the serving size was 1 cup prepared.

Francl27

I find Mac and Cheese labels very confusing. It's one of the reasons I don't make it, I can't figure out if it's cooked, dry, mixed, or what... lol.

But I've found that the '40 calorie slices' of bread etc are usually closer to 55 calories than 40.

BigGuy47

...it seems to me that some companies must lie about the serving sizes of their foods

I wouldn't call it a lie. It's more like gently bending the truth or marketing.

Always use the grams on label for an accurate serving size.

Forty6and2

It's an estimation. Estimations are sometimes wrong. That's called "life."

The_Enginerd

It was cooked, the serving size was 1 cup prepared.

The serving weight was for the serving as boxed, and it provided you a cooked volume for reference. The cooked weight will be quite different. Pasta nearly double in weight when cooked due to the water absorbed.

Your best bet for accuracy in this case would be to get the total cooked weight, and divide it by the number of servings to get the cooked serving weight.

roxielu0422

I'm still trying to figure out NI on microwave popcorn. That's like trying to decode an invisible ink message.

jessthep1rate

Your best bet for accuracy in this case would be to get the total cooked weight, and divide it by the number of servings to get the cooked serving weight.

Why didn't I think of that! Duh. :P I will have to do that next time. But I still don't understand why on earth they would phrase it that way, that's terrible.

I'm still trying to figure out NI on microwave popcorn. That's like trying to decode an invisible ink message.

What's NI?

Jestinia

They are allowed to be off by quite a large margin. Being in the business of selling you something that will fill you up and make you happy, are you surprised when they prefer to go overboard rather than risk skimping on the calories? Weigh and measure everything and when in doubt, assume the worst.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/special-reports/special-food-labels/nXsJZ/

The government only requires nutritional facts to fall within a range of the actual amount. The real number can be up to 20 percent more.