How US labeling is decieving
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I'm a retired Electrical Contractor. Now, nearly 2 years into trying to figure out all this nutrition/health stuff. It continues to be time well spent.neanderthin wrote: »Are you an engineer, just curious.
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I'm a retired Electrical Contractor. Now, nearly 2 years into trying to figure out all this nutrition/health stuff. It continues to be time well spent.neanderthin wrote: »Are you an engineer, just curious.
Right, makes sense. Nutrition is fascinating and it keeps you wanting more, no doubt about that. Cheers.0 -
Also watch out for junk food stating "healthy" on packaging just because a nutrient or mineral may exceed standard RDA even by a little.
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Also watch out for junk food stating "healthy" on packaging just because a nutrient or mineral may exceed standard RDA even by a little.
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Yeah, for sure. Most children's cereals and cereals in general have a very long history for claims of health benefits, which imo was and is disinformation, apple juice and other fruit juices another one.0 -
Changing track slightly, but last night I encountered the very first case I can recall of a "serving size" being actually SMALLER than I would expect. Almost invariably, a "serving size" is ridiculously small, and a person consumes much more as a matter of course. But last night my family had Blue Bunny Star Bars for dessert, basically chocolate-coated ice cream on a stick. We always get one stick per person, but I happened to notice the packaging said one serving was actually TWO sticks. Well, I'll be darned.3
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Coffee creamer for me. It's 35 cal per serving, and when I tracked my actual servings from opening to finishing a bottle I was actually getting about 2.5x as many servings. With a typical 3 cups per day, I was over-stating my calorie inputs by about 65 calories daily.Changing track slightly, but last night I encountered the very first case I can recall of a "serving size" being actually SMALLER than I would expect. Almost invariably, a "serving size" is ridiculously small, and a person consumes much more as a matter of course. But last night my family had Blue Bunny Star Bars for dessert, basically chocolate-coated ice cream on a stick. We always get one stick per person, but I happened to notice the packaging said one serving was actually TWO sticks. Well, I'll be darned.
EDIT: Not a case of a label being deceiving, but at least for me I was surprised to find they were using what I thought was a very generous serving which makes the bottle seem a) higher calorie, b) lower value.1 -
"Free Range" on packaging is deceptive too since there's no solid criteria on what is considered "free range". There's minimum standard and for chickens it is just being able to poke it's head through a hole of an enclosure.
The USDA’s (and industry standard) definition for “Free Range” is that birds must have “outdoor access” or “access to the outdoors.” In some cases, this can mean access only through a “pop hole,” with no full-body access to the outdoors and no minimum space requirement.
https://certifiedhumane.org/free-range-and-pasture-raised-officially-defined-by-hfac-for-certified-humane-label/
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"Free Range" on packaging is deceptive too since there's no solid criteria on what is considered "free range". There's minimum standard and for chickens it is just being able to poke it's head through a hole of an enclosure.
The USDA’s (and industry standard) definition for “Free Range” is that birds must have “outdoor access” or “access to the outdoors.” In some cases, this can mean access only through a “pop hole,” with no full-body access to the outdoors and no minimum space requirement.
https://certifiedhumane.org/free-range-and-pasture-raised-officially-defined-by-hfac-for-certified-humane-label/
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Local butcher shops have a tendency to source there own beef and chicken from local farmers and often have eggs available for sale, so that might be an option. I live in a rural area where I source my eggs directly from 2 farms and prices are comparable, unless comparing to the cheapest battery eggs. Cheers2 -
Also watch out for junk food stating "healthy" on packaging just because a nutrient or mineral may exceed standard RDA even by a little.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Yes, Michael Pollan suggests "...if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims."
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Also watch out for junk food stating "healthy" on packaging just because a nutrient or mineral may exceed standard RDA even by a little.
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Yes, Michael Pollan suggests "...if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims."
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html
I like Michael and his way of thinking.
https://michaelpollan.com/interviews/food-fight/
Humans can thrive on all sorts of diets. Some live healthy lives on nothing but cattle or seafood. In fact, he says, there’s only one diet that has consistently proved hazardous to our health.
The Western Diet.
I worry about these new rating systems that are poised to take over the supermarket. And very soon there’ll be these ABC ratings or 1 through 100, helping you distinguish whether the Nilla Wafers are better than the Chips Ahoy2 -
Also for organic products the ones you should still research it because even if it says "certified organic" the rules have change to help accommodate larger companies.
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Also for organic products the ones you should still research it because even if it says "certified organic" the rules have change to help accommodate larger companies.
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Also regarding "Certified Organic"--A small local farmer who uses top quality seeds and no pesticides and does everything right probably won't be "Certified Organic" because they haven't jumped through the hoops required to get the official United States stamp.1 -
I'm a bit confused. Is nutritional info in the US given by serving? Then showing a tiny 6gr of fat can be a lot. In pretty much all of Europe calories are given per 100gr, and the macros in grams. And sometimes, calories are additionally given by some random serving. But 100gr is always a must0
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I'm a bit confused. Is nutritional info in the US given by serving? Then showing a tiny 6gr of fat can be a lot. In pretty much all of Europe calories are given per 100gr, and the macros in grams. And sometimes, calories are additionally given by some random serving. But 100gr is always a must
Yes, it's by serving in the US. Which can make it tricky to know how many calories are in one product vs. another. Sometimes they don't even list an amount for a serving, but simply state there are "2 servings per packet"1 -
And what’s maddening is when a food is obviously single serve yet the fine print says it’s “two servings”.
That infuriates me.1 -
springlering62 wrote: »And what’s maddening is when a food is obviously single serve yet the fine print says it’s “two servings”.
That infuriates me.
Yes!!!!!!!0 -
Yes by serviing.I'm a bit confused. Is nutritional info in the US given by serving? Then showing a tiny 6gr of fat can be a lot. In pretty much all of Europe calories are given per 100gr, and the macros in grams. And sometimes, calories are additionally given by some random serving. But 100gr is always a must
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Yikes!0
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Yeah I used to eat Pop Tarts all the time and in a box you usually get 2 packages with 2 Pop Tarts in each package. Most toasters here have at least two slots in them. So take out a package, put in two Pop Tarts and bang! Easy quick breakfast (this was back in the 80's for me). Little did I know that serving was 200 calories. I only saw 200 calories NOT 1 serving. A very easy quick way to utilize you calorie count without even trying.Yikes!
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
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paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.0 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.
FDA does specify serving sizes in spite of what social media makes people think. All foods in the US are covered by 21CFR101.12 https://accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.12 which specifies a reference amount for different categories of food. These regulations have been in place since NLEA came into being in 1994 (?). Some of these serving sizes were revised in 2016 when the label format was changed. (some up , some down).
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paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
From memory - since I haven't eaten a Poptart in decades - I believe there was a time when what people are saying was true, that one packet, 2 Poptarts, was 2 servings. Perhaps they've been shamed into change, but my better guess would be that a 2016 US labeling rule change maybe had something to do with it. Brace yourself for the bureaucratese:Over the last 20 years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that container and unit sizes can influence the amount of food consumed. For containers and units of certain sizes, consumers are likely to eat the entire container or unit in one sitting. For other container and unit sizes, consumers may consume the container or unit in one sitting or may consume the container or unit over multiple sittings or share the container or unit contents with other consumers. To address containers that may be consumed in a single-eating occasion, we are requiring that all containers, including containers of products with “large” RACCs (i.e., products with RACCs of at least 100 grams (g) or 100 milliliters (mL)), containing less than 200 percent of the RACC be labeled as a single-serving container.
Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11865/food-labeling-serving-sizes-of-foods-that-can-reasonably-be-consumed-at-one-eating-occasion
RACC = reference amounts customarily consumed. I'll leave it to readers more pedantic than I to look into how RACCs are defined and regulated.
Yeah, I know, for many readers here 2016 was prehistoric. But for lots of us, it wasn't that long ago . . . almost yesterday.0 -
paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
From memory - since I haven't eaten a Poptart in decades - I believe there was a time when what people are saying was true, that one packet, 2 Poptarts, was 2 servings. Perhaps they've been shamed into change, but my better guess would be that a 2016 US labeling rule change maybe had something to do with it. Brace yourself for the bureaucratese:Over the last 20 years, evidence has accumulated demonstrating that container and unit sizes can influence the amount of food consumed. For containers and units of certain sizes, consumers are likely to eat the entire container or unit in one sitting. For other container and unit sizes, consumers may consume the container or unit in one sitting or may consume the container or unit over multiple sittings or share the container or unit contents with other consumers. To address containers that may be consumed in a single-eating occasion, we are requiring that all containers, including containers of products with “large” RACCs (i.e., products with RACCs of at least 100 grams (g) or 100 milliliters (mL)), containing less than 200 percent of the RACC be labeled as a single-serving container.
Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/05/27/2016-11865/food-labeling-serving-sizes-of-foods-that-can-reasonably-be-consumed-at-one-eating-occasion
RACC = reference amounts customarily consumed. I'll leave it to readers more pedantic than I to look into how RACCs are defined and regulated.
Yeah, I know, for many readers here 2016 was prehistoric. But for lots of us, it wasn't that long ago . . . almost yesterday.
It may have changed with the update in 2016 - I have no idea. I just know what the 2016 version said the serving size is 2 pastries and that was 7 years ago. It just means that people haven't really bothered to read the label since they eat them all the time and figure they are the same as they always were. Sounds like this will live on like lots of other things that have changed (trans fat in margarine is my favorite myth).1 -
Reference amounts CUSTOMARILY consumed...that just screams danger to me. Most people who get a soda at a restaurant or burger joint consider it a single-meal drink, not something to be divided across multiple meals. By definition then, the sodas served today are CUSTOMARILY consumed in one sitting, therefore meet the criterion for RACC. This despite the fact a small soda served at many burger joints today is bigger than a large soda served fifty years ago.
Allowing the consumer to decide what qualifies as a suitable standard, in an era of ever-climbing obesity rates, just seems to me a recipe to encourage even more consumption by the masses, which could raise even higher what is considered CUSTOMARILY consumed numbers, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
To be fair, I did not read through the entire article to see if this has already been accounted for or not.0 -
Reference amounts CUSTOMARILY consumed...that just screams danger to me. Most people who get a soda at a restaurant or burger joint consider it a single-meal drink, not something to be divided across multiple meals. By definition then, the sodas served today are CUSTOMARILY consumed in one sitting, therefore meet the criterion for RACC. This despite the fact a small soda served at many burger joints today is bigger than a large soda served fifty years ago.
Allowing the consumer to decide what qualifies as a suitable standard, in an era of ever-climbing obesity rates, just seems to me a recipe to encourage even more consumption by the masses, which could raise even higher what is considered CUSTOMARILY consumed numbers, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
To be fair, I did not read through the entire article to see if this has already been accounted for or not.
At least the RACC is a starting point and gives some standardization. For many people (my husband is 1), NEVER look at a nutrition label so it could say anything and it doesn't matter.
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My wife's the same, which is another reason I do all the grocery shopping (in addition to me being the cook for the family).1
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paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I have a box of Poptarts in my pantry (don't judge - it's hurricane season!
) and it lists "one pastry"/52 grams as the serving size. 2 -
It used to be 1. Kellogg's changed their labels.
https://kelloggs.com/en_US/articles/nutrition/understanding-new-nutrition-label.html
But, yeah, I used to live off top ramen (the brick kind) and, even tho this was in the days of me not calorie counting, I used to eat two bricks each time. That's not even 2 servings. It's 4!0 -
paints5555 wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »paints5555 wrote: »In the US, food manufacturers do not just make up what they think should be a serving. FDA specifies what a serving size is for a particular type of food.
On the poptart question - where is everyone seeing that a serving is only 1 poptart? Reference amount from FDA is 110g which equates to 2 pastries. Every single label I just looked up for Kellogg's poptarts (both on the Kellogg's website as well as sites where they are being sold such as Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, etc.), a serving was listed as 2 pastries, not 1. Please don't tell me that you are believing what MFP says.
I don't think they do... the food company puts the serving on their product, the FDA just reviews it if there's a complaint and decides whether the serving size could be considered "reasonable" but it doesn't say what reasonable would be.
FDA does specify serving sizes in spite of what social media makes people think. All foods in the US are covered by 21CFR101.12 https://accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.12 which specifies a reference amount for different categories of food. These regulations have been in place since NLEA came into being in 1994 (?). Some of these serving sizes were revised in 2016 when the label format was changed. (some up , some down).
Good. They must have made some changes recently. I'm glad.0
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