Who is in charge of serving sizes on packages?

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CashierCantin
CashierCantin Posts: 206 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have always wondered who is in charge of serving sizes on packages.

Sometimes it makes me think they do it just to mess with us!

I grabbed a dill pickle half to put in my lunch and when I looked at the label for my diary and it said a serving was HALF of a HALF.

Why not just say its the whole half for 10 calories?

SMH! LOL
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Replies

  • TheBeerRunner
    TheBeerRunner Posts: 2,777 Member
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    It's up to the manufacturer. Some are ridiculous, like a 20 oz bottle of soda... Who just drinks 8 oz and puts the rest in the fridge? Makes little to no sense to me at all, just a way to trick consumers into thinking something is healthier when they don't realize the entire container is far more than one serving.
  • geekette411
    geekette411 Posts: 154 Member
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    Seriously good question. I've always wondered why someone figured there was 2 1/2 servings in a tiny, 5 oz can of tuna :grumble:
  • CashierCantin
    CashierCantin Posts: 206 Member
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    Can any adult seriously just eat an actual serving of cereal? Why say 3/4 cup instead of the full cup. Just say a cup and be done with it. I can't eat just one cup. I eat Cheerios and 2 cups is a good portion without it being overly piggish. One cup barely covers the bottom of my cereal bowl.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    They are often set to be able to say a certain <something> per serviing.

    Like 0 trans fat per serviing (even tho the product contains trans fat). Or X mg sodium per serviing, which may be the case with a dill pickle. Or even "only 100 calories per serviing" but the tiny box contains 2 servings.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
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    My husband brought home a chocolate bar the other day. The serving size was 6 squares. There were 16 squares on the whole bar :noway:
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Can any adult seriously just eat an actual serving of cereal? Why say 3/4 cup instead of the full cup. Just say a cup and be done with it. I can't eat just one cup. I eat Cheerios and 2 cups is a good portion without it being overly piggish. One cup barely covers the bottom of my cereal bowl.

    Get smaller bowls. :wink:

    I almost always eat two servings of cereal as well. Tuna was another good example. I eat the whole can most times.
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
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    Marketing is a big reason. Could also be a reasonable serving size. If people actually ate listed serving sizes without increasing frequency, there would be far fewer overweight folks.
  • rzaloudek67
    rzaloudek67 Posts: 24
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    I am convinced that 'they' want the calories per serving to be lower than a certain number for breakfast foods, snacks etc. I think it's crazy. At least the soda companies are starting to lable what the whole can is for calories.

    I think it's nuts that a crunchy granola bar, packaged with 2 in it...is labled as 2 servings...I eat the whole thing! ...hmmm, perhaps why I need to lose 50 pounds? The commercial always shows the skinny gal sharing the package. :)
  • sgmomma
    sgmomma Posts: 299 Member
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    Almost everything i've ever seen has screwed up portion sizes. Like poptarts..... i serving is 1 poptart not 2 in the package...ramen noodles is half the package.....i don't remember what brand but once i saw 1/4 c of ice cream...really!?!??! Or on bisquick a serving is 1/3 cup but recipes always call for 1 cup.... they just never make sense
  • TheBeerRunner
    TheBeerRunner Posts: 2,777 Member
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    They are often set to be able to say a certain <something> per serviing.

    Like 0 trans fat per serviing (even tho the product contains trans fat). Or X mg sodium per serviing, which may be the case with a dill pickle. Or even "only 100 calories per serviing" but the tiny box contains 2 servings.

    To be fair, anything with any saturated fat will contain naturally occurring trans fat. The levels usually refer to artificially created trans fats. Trans fats are naturally occurring, but in very, very small percentages to the total number of saturated fatty acid molecules in the food.
  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member
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    Cereal, tuna, crackers all are measured (by me) by digital scale.
    I do eat 1 serving of Cheerios... I used to not, but I do now!

    But yes, 1 poptart as a serving is foolish!

    I guess it's for quick glance "oh hey this is pretty low cal" as you are throwing it into the cart...
  • BflSaberfan
    BflSaberfan Posts: 1,272
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    I was pissed when I realized a block of ramen noodles was 2 servings!
  • LilMissDB
    LilMissDB Posts: 133
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    Can any adult seriously just eat an actual serving of cereal? Why say 3/4 cup instead of the full cup. Just say a cup and be done with it. I can't eat just one cup. I eat Cheerios and 2 cups is a good portion without it being overly piggish. One cup barely covers the bottom of my cereal bowl.

    Guilty. But I drink a whole cup of extra milk with it and it still doesn't keep me as full as the same calories worth of egg and toast :)
  • CashierCantin
    CashierCantin Posts: 206 Member
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    And using the poptart as an example-they put TWO in a pouch but its not recloseable. Now what do you do?
    LOL

    Some good examples and glad I'm not the only one seeing this.

    I had no idea Ramen was 2 servings. Wow! I'll have to tell my hubby that.

    As for "if everyone ate the serving size there wouldn't be any overweight people"....there would also be a lot of cranky upset irritable skinny people who have 1/2 chunks of pickles, 1/2 opened cans of tuna and one stale pop tart laying around their kitchen LOL
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    They are often set to be able to say a certain <something> per serviing.

    Like 0 trans fat per serviing (even tho the product contains trans fat). Or X mg sodium per serviing, which may be the case with a dill pickle. Or even "only 100 calories per serviing" but the tiny box contains 2 servings.

    To be fair, anything with any saturated fat will contain naturally occurring trans fat. The levels usually refer to artificially created trans fats. Trans fats are naturally occurring, but in very, very small percentages to the total number of saturated fatty acid molecules in the food.

    True. Off point of my post, but still true.
  • Katina3333
    Katina3333 Posts: 259 Member
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    What I love is how much of a difference there is between cooked & un cooked weights. (I weigh everything on my food scale) I understand that they don't know how you're going to cook something (tater tots for instance) but it kinda seems unreasonable to weigh out, section off and bake each serving separately for a family of 4! :grumble:
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Marketing is a big reason. Could also be a reasonable serving size. If people actually ate listed serving sizes without increasing frequency, there would be far fewer overweight folks.

    It would depend on how many different foods they were eating. Serving sizes are not designed to fulfill any standard diet. They are for marketing and/or misleading purposes by the manufacturer.
  • am2anangel
    am2anangel Posts: 38 Member
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    Your comments are cracking me up cashier. Also on baby carrots serving size is 14. I don't sit there and eat 14 carrots with a sandwich. Usually just 4-5.
  • am2anangel
    am2anangel Posts: 38 Member
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    Also when they give prepared and unprepared counts. Um I'm not planning on eating the pasta or cake mix raw really??? Lol
  • twodavez
    twodavez Posts: 3 Member
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    Marketing is a big reason. Could also be a reasonable serving size. If people actually ate listed serving sizes without increasing frequency, there would be far fewer overweight folks.

    It would depend on how many different foods they were eating. Serving sizes are not designed to fulfill any standard diet. They are for marketing and/or misleading purposes by the manufacturer.

    I agree, i don't think that the serving size is all a person should eat of something in a single meal, it's just a unit of measuring to be able to help people track what they're eating if they so choose.
    I'm sure they could put two pop tarts info on the box, but what if you're splitting it, it's easier to multiple by 2 than divide by 2. Plus it looks good on the box that it only has X calories...

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