can food manufacturers lie ??

Question

about the nutricional information in labels of products....???

Answer 1

By: Di Bauer, CarbSmart Editor
What's On The Label

Everybody is familiar with word search games where you must find words hidden in vast columns of primarily random letters. The words can be written vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. In addition, the words can be written left to right or right to left. I hate those kinds of word games! Unfortunately, the nutritional analysis labels of manufactured food products are a lot like word searches.

It would be nice if the food manufacturers were required to honestly list the nutritional analysis of their products on the label, but they aren't. In fact, in some cases they are required by law to not include certain food elements, such as glycerin, in their food counts. If I can be indelicate for a moment, this is a crock!

In addition, food manufacturers and processors are allowed to round nutritional counts for protein, fat, and carbohydrates up or down, and they are permitted to manipulate serving sizes to their advantage as well.

No one can get an accurate overview of a particular food without understanding how the nutritional analyses are manipulated, how to determine where "hidden" nutritional facts are buried, and how to unearth them.

Let's take a look at the components of the nutritional labels, and then we'll get into how the food processors and manufacturers manipulate the data that they are required to place of their labels.

Food processors and manufacturers are required to place basic nutritional information on their labels. They are required to state the serving size and the number of servings in the box or package. The nutritional analysis on the box or package is for a "serving" size, and must include the total number of calories per "serving," as well as the total grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. In addition, the amount of saturated fat, the insoluble fiber, the sugars, and the sodium are to be listed.

Seems pretty straight forward, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the food processors and manufacturers have been given a number of legal loopholes - and they use every single one of them to their advantage, not ours. Let's take a look at some of the loopholes - perfectly legal loopholes - that are allowed by law.
Serving Size

Serving size is the easiest and most obvious manipulation by the food industry. By making the serving size of their product small, the food processor or manufacturer can make their product appear to have fewer calories, less fat, or less carbohydrates.

You also have to be honest with yourself about how much of a particular food you're eating. You have to base your nutritional calculations on the serving size stated on the package, not what you consider a serving size. Saying you only ate one serving of sugar free pudding because a "serving" to you is at least a cup or more, while the box says a serving is 1/2 a cup is self-defeating.

Rounding The Numbers

Food processors and manufacturers are allowed to round their nutritional counts either up or down. They use this ability in conjunction with unrealistic serving sizes to make their products appear to be "better," that is, have fewer calories, or fewer grams of fat or carbohydrates.

Any nutritional count which is less that 0.5 may be rounded down to "0" in the nutritional analysis on the label. Any nutritional count which falls between 0.5 and 0.9 may be labeled as "<1," meaning "less than one." In the same vein, a nutritional count that is actually 1.4 grams of carbohydrates can legally be labeled as one. But when you are trying to keep your carbohydrate consumption as low as possible, every tenth of a gram counts!

Heavy or whipping cream has 6.6 grams of carbohydrates per cup. There are 16 tablespoons in a cup, and most of the labels for heavy or whipping cream state a serving size of 1 tablespoon. 6.6 divided by 16 is 0.4125, and that is the number of grams of carbohydrates in a tablespoon on whipping cream. Since the amount is less than 0.5, it can legally be labeled as "0."

But is isn't.

Exempted Ingredients

To make matters even more complicated, certain ingredients are exempted from the nutritional analysis on food labels. For low carbers, the most important ingredient that this applies to is glycerin, which is a major component in the low carb protein and candy bars.

Glycerin is exempt from the carbohydrate count in these (and all) products because, according to the infinite wisdom of the USDA, glycerin is a carbohydrate which is not processed by the human body and therefor it should not be included in the nutritional analysis.

In this instance, the food processors and manufacturers really aren't at fault. Why? Because the USDA requires them to label their products that way. They don't have a choice. If they gave an accurate carbohydrate count on the bars, they would be breaking the law.

Exempted Manufacturers

Once in a while, sometimes more than once in a while, you will run across a processed food product that does not have a nutritional analysis on the label. How do the so-and-so's get away with this?

It's simple. If a business is very small, they are exempt from the nutritional analysis requirement. This is understandable, and even fair, I think, although it is irritating. Having a food nutritionally analyzed in an independent laboratory is very expensive. If every fledgling food processor had to have their products nutritionally analyzed, there would be very few new or small food processors or manufacturers out there because they simply couldn't afford to go into business.

Inaccurate Labels

Sometimes labels are just plain inaccurate, so always take what they state with a grain of salt. The USDA requires accurate labeling, but the agency does not have the funding to actually test the thousands of various food products on the market. The USDA has to rely on the food processors and manufacturers to make accurate statements on their labels, and sometimes the food processors and manufacturers don't do that.

Yes, some of it is corporate sleight of hand and dishonest, but that is not always the case. I have seen several food labeling errors that were merely misprinted labels. In these cases, the manufacturers corrected the errors either immediately or as soon as they ran out of the misprinted labels.

In other cases, the baseline nutritional analysis has been inaccurate. Several years ago, Lee Rodgers of The Low Carb Retreat was skeptical about the nutritional labels of the low carb tortillas offered by La Tortilla Factory, so he and a group of his subscribers had the tortillas nutritionally analyzed at their own expense. Lee wasn't surprised that the carbohydrate count was inaccurate, and posted the accurate count on his lists and his web site. He also sent the information to La Tortilla Factory, and to their credit, they changed their label to reflect the new (and accurate) nutritional analysis immediately.

Not all food processors and manufacturers respond so positively and willingly as La Tortilla Factory did. Some will just tell people "Tough luck," and turn their backs. Those types of companies should be shunned, and companies like La Tortilla Factory should be supported.
Finding The Hidden Carbohydrates In Processed Foods

According the US law, all fat and protein must be accounted for in the nutritional analysis on food labels. This is not true of carbohydrates because glycerin is exempt from being included. So, how do you know if the nutritional analysis of the food you'd like to eat is accurate?

Let's look at an imaginary food label and see if we find any hidden carbohydrates. Here's what the label says:

Calories: 250 Total Fat: 10 grams Saturated Fat: 4 grams Protein: 11 grams Total Carbohydrates: 15 Fiber: 5 grams

First of all, ignore the saturated fat and fiber listings; they are irrelevant and we don't need to use them at this point. Look only at the total calories, total fat, protein, and total carbohydrates.

Each gram of fat contains 9 calories. Each gram of both protein and carbohydrates contains 4 calories. By multiplying the total fat grams by 9 and the protein and total carbohydrate grams by 4 and then adding the totals, we can determine exactly how many calories are accounted for by the information listed on the label.

Multiply the total fat grams by 9.9 x 10 = 90

Multiply the protein grams by 4.4 x 11 =44

Multiply the total carbohydrate grams by 4.4 x 15 =60

Add the totals. 190

Subtract the total calories represented by the fat, protein, and carbohydrates listed on the label from the total number of calories per serving.

Total calories per serving: 250

Total calories from the fat, protein, and carbohydrates: -190

60

There are 60 unaccounted for calories in this made-up food. These are hidden carbohydrates. Since carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, divide the "extra" calories by 4.

60 divided by 4 = 15.

There are 15 grams of hidden carbohydrates in this fictional food.
Where To Find Information About Food Counts

When the problem with the accuracy of the nutritional information is due to serving size and rounding, it behooves us to know the accurate nutritional information about the foods we routinely eat.

If you are in doubt as to the accuracy of the label - which should be any time the carbohydrate count is zero - use the formula given above to check for hidden carbs.

Keep a food log of what you have consumed, and report what you've eaten honestly and accurately. If you do not know the nutritional information for one of the foods you've eaten, look it up.

And it bears repeating......

Read the labels! Read the labels! Read the labels!

*****

Lee Rodgers, is the founder of The Low Carb Retreat, a extraordinary low carber and human being, and originator of "The Whoosh" (tm).

Answer 2

Yes, food manufacturers can lie. They can also stretch the truth a bit.

The food and supplement industry is not heavily regulated. Many claims are not investigated or fined unless someone files a complaint.

There is also a level of "built-in" error on your nutrition facts label. Based on the number of calories in a typical serving, the totals may be rounded up or down. They are also allowed a margin of error - I believe it is 20% - meaning that a product reporting 200 calories can really be 180 - 220 calories and still fall within guidelines. If they can trim a serving size down so that trans fats or saturated fats are less than 0.5 gram, they can round down and claim "zero fat" or "zero trans fat." Imagine a cookie with 0.4 grams of trans fat. It can be marketed as "no trans fat" but if you eat 10, you'll really be getting 4 grams of trans fats.

That's why I recommend not just reading the nutrition facts, but also the ingredients and learning the bigger picture over all.

This is an article that I wrote about reading food lables and ingredients lists you might find useful:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/likness30.htm

Jeremy

Answer 3

David B is exactly right.Food is regulated by the FDA.All claims are supposed to have research data to back up their claims of nurtritional value.What they cannot do is claim to cure any disease etc(except in the case of things like Smart Balance where there has been so much clinical research to back those claims),just like supplements.Supplements are a different story.The FDA places only very loose guidelines on them and does not evaluate their claims.
You can subscribe to Consumer Lab to find out which supplements fail clinical testing based on their nutrtional analysis.

Answer 4

Yes.

Anyone can lie. However, if they get caught in a lie, they can be fined by the FDA and can be sued by the general populous.

Answer 5

all of them do, huh? once you say "nutrition manufacturers deceive and lie" you propose that all of them do it, all of them do the comparable ingredient? "Why hasn't the FDA banned using transfats entirely?" when you consider which you have no longer confident the FDA that they might desire to.

Answer 6

Yes, better read the ingredients. Once you found MSG, that food is not advisable to eat. It will only make you bloat.

Answer 7

yes, if they want sell their product