[Meg]

I bought a bag of dinner rolls at the store for dinner tonight (for the rest of the family) to go with the chef's salads I'm making. So I pick the bag up here at home and look at the nutrition facts .... hmmm ... only 70 calories each, 14g of carbs. Not bad! Then I look again and it says 10 servings per bag. Well, there's only six rolls per bag. Turns out that the "serving size" is 3/4 roll! Is that crazy or what? How can they get away with 3/4 roll as a serving size??? NO ONE eats 3/4 of a roll! That's as insane as 1/2 muffin being a "serving" or a bottle of Coke being "2.5 servings" or a bag of chips as "4 servings". I'm sure a lot of people only read the nutrition info without checking to see what the "serving size" actually is on each package, especially with individual kinds of items, like rolls. Seems to me that the FDA should require some kind of sanity in food labeling.

Rant over!

[MrsJim]

Well, Kraft DID say that they were going to reduce their serving sizes. Although they didn't say they were going to actually reduce the amount of Mac & Cheese in the blue box (one of my husband's favorite foods actually...he can easily eat a whole Blue Box - prepared of course - by himself. Heck, so can I!).

[Suzanne 3FC]

I think they ARE changing the rules to force manufacturers to be more accurate about this. No more calories per 3/4 slice cheese, lol, they will have to provide the nutrition per portion. I'm not sure when this will be effective, but it will likely be a year or two away.

At least this is better than it is in some other places. When I was in the UK, their labels require nutrition per 100 grams of product. Some manufacturers would also publish the amount per package or per serving, but many others stuck with the 100g label, no matter what the size of package. You needed a calculator to figure it out.

[jiffypop]

meg... that's SOOO bizarre... and by doing the math, each roll is about 100 calories [just a shade under] and about 18 g carbs. would those numbers make SUCH a difference to someone who was deciding whether to eat one of these rolls????

and i guess that's why i don't usually buy things if the serving sizes don't make sense. my goal is to simplify my life as much as possible. so i decide what's reasonable [subtract the fiber from the carb grams] and keep the carb serving in the 12-15 g range andif i can't grab a slice - or a unit- or a reasonable size , that package stays on the store shelf.

[Meg]

OMG, Jack, now I feel guilt at not baking the rolls! I'm sure that YOU bake from scratch, right? I'm still shoveling out the pizza boxes and excavating the layers of dirty clothes but am seeing patches of bare floor in a few places. Thanks for asking!

[Charma]

That IS crazy.

[Suzanne 3FC]

I bake my own bread! But it's because I've had "bad" experiences with bread. We should start a thread on things you might find in your food. It could help reduce our appetites!!


Charma, it really is crazy! And it's been going on for ages! It's so misleading, and it's surprising that it's gone on for so long.

[Sweater Girl]

Has anyone else ever noticed this-

For example on a package it will say its serving size is 1/3 of a cup (30g), yet if you weigh the 1/3 of a cup it weighs usually quite a bit more (and that is 1/3 of a cup levelled off?), it's not always like that, but that's why I always weigh stuff with a digital scale, much more accurate.

[Meg]

Has anyone else ever noticed this-

For example on a package it will say its serving size is 1/3 of a cup (30g), yet if you weigh the 1/3 of a cup it weighs usually quite a bit more (and that is 1/3 of a cup levelled off?),

YES!! Especially with cereal! One serving of cereal by weight is usually SO much less than by volume. It just sits there in the bottom of the bowl looking ... small. But I'm sure it's more accurate since it adds up to the number of servings per box pretty closely.

BTW, I can never seem to get the number of servings per package out of almost anything, from cottage cheese to cereal. I must measure too enthusiastically! (in other words, too generously )

[Suzanne 3FC]

Originally Posted by Jack-150

Serving sizes are the just one of the horrors on the packages as Suzanne said.

Oh, I was referring to the little surprises you find in your food that are NOT on the labels!

[MrsJim]

Serving sizes...that's why I don't buy Jim one of his favorite cereals - GrapeNuts - that much anymore.

He probably has at least 5 servings per sitting - of course he's not a label reader so I hate to tell him that he's getting in about 500 or so calories (just off the top of my head, I didn't check the nutritional info) whenever he pours his 'regular sized bowl', so now he's on Bran Flakes which he's fine with. He's a guy, he's gotta have his cereal.

[Suzanne 3FC]

Ok, I once discovered something in my bread that was big, round, yellow, wet, and extremely gross.

I bit into a hot dog that contained a whole artery.

Mom opened a can of green beans that had a nice preserved caterpillar on top.

I used to work as a receptionist for Coke, and someone called to complain about a can that had this huge slimy blob in it. So it didn't happen to me, I learned a valuable lesson and won't drink something unseen. Btw, it turned out to be a can of RC Cola and the guy was yelling at the wrong people, so don't blame Coke

Flies in my jelly. Hairballs in my bbq beef. Chewing gum in my pasta sauce.

Shall I go on? I much prefer to cook my food from scratch! If I had the room, I'd live a self-sustained lifestyle, growing all of my veggies and wheat, etc.

[Emerald]

Suzanne! EWWWW! Thanks for sharing - NOT! Do you have really bad luck? Or have I just not been checking things close enough!?!? Blah!!!!!!!!!!

[Suzanne 3FC]

Maybe bad luck, or maybe because I inspect everything I eat Manufacturers are legally allowed to allow a certain amount of "things" in food before it's considered contaminated. I won't share the details on this one, though

And to think, we grew up eating SPAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?!?