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Nutrition labels can be very deceptive and lead consumers to
think products are healthier than they actually are. The flaws in nutrition
labels may be part of the reason some people are becoming increasingly unhealthy.
While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does regulate nutrition
labeling, they do not pre-approve nor look for inaccurate
food labels.
An Example
The cookie label pictured to the right is an image from fooducate.
The first thing you notice is the crazy serving size. Keeping tabs on your
snacks or meals shouldn't require a food scale to be accurate. The serving size
2/25 lbs is about 1.28 ounces and each cookie is 1 ounce each. No one I know is
going to measure out 28/100ths of a cookie.
Another problem with this label is the ghastly math
involved. Only 2 grams of carbohydrates is listed when it has to be at least as
much as the dietary fiber and sugar combined. Digestible carbohydrates would
also need to be included in the total carbohydrate category for it to be
accurate.
How Is Nutrition Fact
Data Found?
There are two ways that the nutrition facts are generated.
One is by using software to do a database analysis of the recipe, which is much
less reliable despite being the choice of restaurants and smaller food
companies due to cost (think less than or equal to 15% of the cost of the alternative
method). The alternative method is chemical analysis where a small sample of
food is analyzed in a laboratory.
Fried Foods
Another source of improper labeling involves fried foods.
When made by a small company or restaurant, fried foods are pretty much
guaranteed to have inaccurate calorie and fat labeling. Data analysis cannot
accurately calculate the amount of fat that remains on a food after it has been
fried. Even if they measure the oil before and after frying, chances are that
number isn't very accurate either.
Can you spot flaws in nutrition labels? Look at this
food label and tell me what you think is wrong with it? There are a couple
of things wrong with this label, so keep your eyes peeled. 
The next part of this series focuses on more flaws that are
less noticeable to the eye!
Resources:
http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2009/12/02/nutrition-data-gone-wild/
Pumpkin
Donut Hole Label
Cookie
Label
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Re: The Flaws of Nutrition Labels (Part 1)
