You're happily munching away on what you think is a low-calorie snack, only to realize halfway through that what you thought was a single-serving bag actually contained two servings — or more.
The disconnect between the nutritional information on packaged foods and our perceptions of serving sizes is big enough that the Center for Science in the Public Interesthas issued a call for the government to update how foods are labeled.
"Labels for canned soup, ice cream, coffee creamer, and aerosol non-stick cooking sprays understate the calories, sodium, and saturated fat consumers are likely to get from those products, since the declared serving sizes are much smaller than actual serving sizes," the public health advocacy group saidin a statement.
In 2010, CSPI conducted a national telephone survey to find out how much of a can of soup average Americans consumed in one sitting, using Campbell's Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle soup and Campbell's Chicken Noodle condensed soup as its focus. For both soups, the majority of those surveyed (64% and 62% respectively) indicated that they generally ate an entire can of soup as part of one meal, despite the fact that the nutritional information provided for each of the soups was for less than half a can per serving. Eating a whole can of the Chunky soup meant taking in 1,840 mg of sodium, while those who finished off a can of the condensed soup were swallowing a whopping 2,390 mg of sodium-- both staggering numbers considering that the recommended daily allowance of sodium is 2,300 mg for healthy adults and 1,500 mg for those over 51 or at risk for heart disease.
These misconceptions about serving size aren't limited to canned soup says CSPI. The industry watchdog provided some other troubling label stats:
- Ice Cream: The standard serving size is a half-cup. While this restrained helping of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla represents 10 grams of saturated fat, a less dainty serving of a full cup equals an entire day's serving of saturated fat.
- Cooking Spray: If you can keep your spritz to a third or a quarter of a second, the aerosol cooking spray is, in fact, a zero calorie and zero fat non-stick solution. However, a six-second spray ups that intake to 50 calories and 6 grams of fat.
- Coffee Creamer: While powdered creamers like Fat-Free Original Coffee-mate boast 10 calories and no fat per serving, that serving is one teaspoon. A creamier cup of java with two tablespoons of creamer boosts that intake to 50 calories and 1.6 grams of saturated fat, similar to the 40 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat in two tablespoons of half-and-half.
The CSPI sent a letter to the FDA in late June urging the agency to overhaul its Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACC), the regulations that set standard serving sizes. The current RACC is based on surveys taken of American eating habits in the late 1970s.
"Given the prevalence of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke in America, we need accurate food labels that would ensure that consumers really know what they're likely to consume," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson in a statement. "The FDA should define serving sizes to reflect what consumers actually eat, as the law requires, not what the soup industry pretends that they eat."
While the FDA proposed an update to serving sizes in 2005, it has not yet made the changes. Food Safety News reports that an overhaul of average serving sizes is included in the new set of nutrition labeling guidelines currently under consideration by the FDA. That proposal is expected to be made public by the end of the year.