Who is in charge of serving sizes on packages?

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2

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  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    I really wish they would package the PopTarts individually. LIke, I WANT to only eat one, but I don't want that other PopTart getting all stale.

    OK, I want to eat, like, four but I know one is what I shoudl eat...
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 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

    I like it when they do that for stuff like Mac & cheese. I used to use skim milk, but the prepared calorie count was for if I used 1 or 2% milk. I use whole milk now, if I logged the prepared calories I'd be underestimating the amount of calories in the food. So for some things having a unprepared count is very helpful.
  • Katina3333
    Katina3333 Posts: 259 Member
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    I agree with the prepared / unprepared for mixes because you can add different ingredients like for the cake mix you could do the soda cake instead of the oil & eggs and whatnot.
  • BflSabrefan
    BflSabrefan Posts: 17
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    Big difference in prepared and unprepared popcorn. Kernels anyone?
  • babyj0
    babyj0 Posts: 531 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.

    I agree with you on that. I once poured 3/4 of a cup and looked at all like "WTF?". Who eats just 3/4 cereal?? Lol.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
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    It's due to the "labelling requirements"

    Rules allow them to label anything with under 0.5 grams of fat in a "serving" as 0 grams of fat...
    have a look at.. what's a big offender for a good example... oh yes those "butter sprays"
    0 calories... 0 fat... but if you look at the ingredients... oil.... what's going on?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/848040-butter-spray-what-what
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/979044-lawsuit-against-i-can-t-believe-it-s-not-butter-eeek

    What they "term" a serving of something like 1.25 sprays... (how can you even get a 1/4 spray it's either a spray or it's not) which may well be 0 calories, but when you use the whole bottle for 900 ish calories...
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 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

    I like it when they do that for stuff like Mac & cheese. I used to use skim milk, but the prepared calorie count was for if I used 1 or 2% milk. I use whole milk now, if I logged the prepared calories I'd be underestimating the amount of calories in the food. So for some things having a unprepared count is very helpful.

    I agree. I often substitute ingredients for what is suggested on a package so I like to know the details for just what is in the package.
  • Serenitytoo
    Serenitytoo Posts: 449 Member
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    The one that gets me is a frozen pizza I occasionally get and a serving is 1/5 of the pizza. It used to be 1/4 which was so much easier to measure out. I have a hard enough time cutting it into equal halves. never mind equal fifths! I just cut as normally and have to put this in as a fraction of a whole pizza.
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    Big difference in prepared and unprepared popcorn. Kernels anyone?

    That one is ridic. I think by law they have to give you the unprepared amount or something. Or maybe someone out there really just eats the microwave popcorn kernels.
  • Katina3333
    Katina3333 Posts: 259 Member
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    The one that gets me is a frozen pizza I occasionally get and a serving is 1/5 of the pizza. It used to be 1/4 which was so much easier to measure out. I have a hard enough time cutting it into equal halves. never mind equal fifths! I just cut as normally and have to put this in as a fraction of a whole pizza.


    Why not just multiply it by 5 to get the total for the whole pizza & then divide that number by however many slices you cut it into?
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    The one that gets me is a frozen pizza I occasionally get and a serving is 1/5 of the pizza. It used to be 1/4 which was so much easier to measure out. I have a hard enough time cutting it into equal halves. never mind equal fifths! I just cut as normally and have to put this in as a fraction of a whole pizza.

    The worst with this is DiGiorno Pizza & Sides. They have, like, 5 servings of pizza but 8 servings of breadsicks, or two servings of "wyngz". What the hell, dude? Like, three people get a breadstick but no pizza? Only the chosen ones get "wyngz"? Might be the most infuriating serving sizes I've ever seen.
  • chellec23
    chellec23 Posts: 147 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.

    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 :)

    2 cups of multigrain cheerios with 1/2-2/3 cup of skim milk keeps me more satisfied than eggs and toast. Weird.
  • chellec23
    chellec23 Posts: 147 Member
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    Big difference in prepared and unprepared popcorn. Kernels anyone?

    That one is ridic. I think by law they have to give you the unprepared amount or something. Or maybe someone out there really just eats the microwave popcorn kernels.

    Uh, yeah, and WHO actually measures it out?? Do it by full bag, you damn popcorn companies!!
  • CashierCantin
    CashierCantin Posts: 206 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.

    I eat the serving size (I actually I weigh out 3 oz). I eat them instead of 'chips' with my samich...they are my crunch and fill in where other stuff used to be aka pretzels, chips, pasta salad, potato salad etc.. For 35 calories though I don't think its hardly a gluttonous act on my part LOL
  • Cheeky_0102
    Cheeky_0102 Posts: 408 Member
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    sometimes it has to do with being able to not report ingredients too. Like if there is less than X amount of aspertame per serving it doesn't report.
  • explosivedonut
    explosivedonut Posts: 419 Member
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    Newman's Own Light Butter does it by post-popped weight/amount. 1 serving is about 3 1/2 cups!
  • ihammen
    ihammen Posts: 55 Member
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    I agree that the serving size on a lot of food items is ridiculous. But we need to be aware of that when grocery shopping and check the nutrition label. I have gotten used to looking to see how many servings are in a package or bottle, and figuring out how much I will probably consume, to see if it's worth buying.
  • Christine61314
    Christine61314 Posts: 47 Member
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    I once bought burgers that had 4 in the packet however it said on the back that it served 6...how's that even meant to work? Lol.
  • gagatcu
    gagatcu Posts: 23 Member
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    The servings sizes are set by the FDA. For each category of food item, there is a RACC (recommended amount customarily consumed). The food companies are not evil. The serving sizes have not changed in a long time, but our portion sizes in America have gotten a lot bigger.
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 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.

    It has a lot to do with how you are used to eating. I don't have a problem with 3/4 cup of cereal, or the standard serving of tuna either so long as I'm making tuna salad sandwiches from it. But I have a very hard time limiting myself to a single biscuit at breakfast. There's nearly as many calories there as in a standard serving of pasta, and you only get one? ONLY ONE? All of my life I've typically eaten two, one with butter and the other with jam, and often I had another starch, grits, on the side. Or maybe sausage gravy made with flour. Occasionally I still have a carb heavy breakfast like that, but it's a rare treat these days.

    Bagels tend to be even more expensive in terms of calories, but at least a single bagel seems like a normal, full sized serving.

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