I recently was at a Trader Joes and saw these apple-almond stuffed pork chops in the meat section. They looked good, so I checked the nutrition information - 190 calories per piece, as per the label. I thought they'd make a nice treat with a salad and some veggies, so I bought them.

Now, I had done my label-reading, but something seemed not right when I actually opened the package and looked at the size of the pork chops inside - they seemed big for 190 calories of pork chop. So I take another look at the package.

1 piece per the nutrition information was 128 grams - now I don't carry the conversion for grams to ounces in my head, generally, though I will now - turns out that 128 grams is about 4.5 ounces. My package of two pieces weighed almost exactly a pound. Hmm...so two pieces should weigh 9 oz, and my two pieces weigh 16oz?

It would be TOTALLY different if the nutrition facts said "4.5 ounces" as the portion size - then I would have weighed it no problem. But to mark a portion as "one piece" when none of the 4 pieces I bought were anywhere CLOSE to the size they used to define a "piece"...it was frustrating.

I mean come on! I'm a label checker, religiously. But do I really need to keep an ounce to gram conversion going in my head so TJs can't lie to me about what a "piece" is defined as?

Yup this just burns me! I get so mad when I read labels that mess around with the serving sizes. Like microwave popcorn is a classic example. They almost NEVER just give the amount of calories in the bag. Its always "per Tbls unpopped" and then "per cup popped" or something ridiculous. AGHHHHH! Just tell me how many calories are in the freakin' bag already!

Haha! I hear ya'll. I'm not only a label checker, I'm an ingredient checker (when you're beachin' it, you kind of have to). The other day, I found high fructose corn syrup in....


wait for it...




HUMMUS


That's right, hummus. Made up of chickpeas and spices. Now who the puts CORN SYRUP IN HUMMUS?! Ugh.

Yes, the "sugar free cool whip" caught my eye in store last weekend. The first ingredient was water, the second was corn syrup. !!???????!! Since when can corn syrup be a sugar free ingredient???

I just don't understand how they can base their nutrition information on a piece, then have no pieces that are actually that size.

It would be like if you bought a package of cookies, and the serving size said "1 cookie" but the cookie that they measured was really only half the size of the cookies they actually put in the package.

TOTAL marketing scam and rip-off. And irritating. And discouraging. Like when you see a serving size of 28g (1 oz) and the photo shows a 10oz serving (darn you, potato chips!!!!). And when one "serving" equals 2 oz, and the item is pre-divided into 4 servings of 4 oz. And, my favorite cookbooks that details the carbs/fat/calories/fiber per serving, and the picture shows a HUGE plate of food, and the print says that 1 serving equals 1/3 of a cup. RIP-OFF!!! What can you do...sigh...

I'm serious. We should start emailing places like Trader Joe's. They pride themselves on healthy ingredients. While the ingredients may be healthy, their nutritional info certainly sucks.

I'll be happy to join any of you who wish to do this. We can pick 1 item per week and blitz someone. Maybe they will think twice and change their packaging information if we all do it.

I've actually seen that! There is a line of "Protein Cookies" sold at the gym where I used to work that had the nutritional info about protein, carbs and fat in BIG LETTERING on the front, then on the back it said that one serving was half a cookie

Mel

Mel - its not even that...although that is bad too.

It was like saying a serving was 1 cookie (100 grams) and the cookies in the package actually weigh 200 grams, and also having "varies" as servings per container so you can't even figure it out that way...