Ahhh! Deceptive packaging

  • I bought seven "individual size" bags of cheese flavored "healthy" popcorn. I quickly checked the calories and saw there was 170 and 8 grams of protein. I bought a bunch because they were on for .97 cents thinking I could sit down and enjoy a whole bag in the evening. Yesterday was a free day because it was my birthday so I had a nice piece of chocolate cake at dinner and sat down with my popcorn before bed. I noticed it tasted too good to be true, my first hint to PUT DOWN THE POPCORN LOL. It was just like the white Smart Food Popcorn I used to love back in the day . Today I decided to investigate the ingredients to see if the calorie count was off somehow. There was no weight listed on the bag which was strange. I weighed a full bag and realized there were about 3.5 servings per bag. That was 600 calories and I ate the whole thing!!! in the same day as a piece of cake It is actually slightly worse than Smart Food. Live and learn, I guess but I am just upset about it because I have been trying really hard lately I even denied myself KFC for my birthday even though I really wanted it ( I made my own baked version )

    It's should be illegal to sell food without the weight listed or at least the number of servings per package. Maybe it is illegal Has this ever happened to you.
  • Yes, and it's so annoying. I got a microwavable Thai noodle bowl and it said 237 calories. But there were 2 servings in the bowl, so over 500 calories! Like anyone is going to eat only half a bowl!

    They really need to change the labeling on stuff. They seem to decrease what a serving size is, so they can pad their numbers to seem like it's low calories.
  • It didn't say how many servings were per container? I thought it HAD to say that?! Wow, I'm sorry. I'm glad you caught it.

    I can't think of anything like that happening to me lately but I will sure be checking my labels more closely.
  • Luckily you caught it before eating all the bags you bought!
    On another note, I've noticed that foods with really high calorie counts only put down the calories for one reaaalllllyyy tiny portion, when its something that noone would ever portion out (like 4 chips or something... what the heck!). Probably so people like me will buy it thinking its "healthy". :-(
    It WAS your birthday though so I don't think you should worry too much. One day off isn't bad, especially a day like your birthday. Happy belated birthday though!!!!!!
  • Yes, many calorie counts on packaging are for one serving and then they list something ridiculous like 2.5 servings per container.

    In Europe everything is lists by a 100 gram unit. It works for me only when weighing everything on a scale. I think the best way to label a product would be to list what the whole package contains and let the consumer break it up into servings as they see fit.

    For awhile, I was buying a large bag of popcorn and splitting it up into different size ziplocks bags, marking the bag with the calorie count. That way I could have more or less depending on my day's total. But snacking is dangerous territory for me, once I start up on it, I am always looking for a snack. I do best on a simple 3 meals a day, 4 if I am having to do night driving.
  • I have run into that. All those little bags of snack foods like pretzels and crackers are all usually 2.5 or 3.5 servings. It is deceptive, but I havent seen one that didnt list how many servings it had. That is totally dishonest. If you dont want to throw away the popcorn, my vote is that when you pop it, measure into zip lock the 3 servings you arent eating and put it away. Personally I am a once ya pop you cant stop kinda snack eater. So for at least this intial few weeks, anything that isnt one serving per bag is a no for me!But no weight and not listing the servings is crazy. And if not illegal shoudl be!