Buyer Beware:
Product Labels Don't Always Measure Up
By Jim Core
September 28, 2004 A new study by
Agricultural Research Service scientists
in Beltsville, Md., may have some surprising news for consumers: Many
single-serving sized food products provide more food than is advertised.
However, this is not necessarily good news for many Americans.
ARS scientists wanted to evaluate the reliability of weights stated on
single-serving-sized commercial food products to see if researchers could
depend on what was printed on labels in place of determining actual weights.
Products sold as single portions, such as serving-sized boxes of cereal,
packaged desserts or canned fruit, are commonly used as part of controlled
diets prepared for research studies.
Three researchers at the ARS Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research
Center (BHNRC) present these
findings in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic
Association.
Joan Conway, a research chemist in BHNRC's Diet and Human Performance
Laboratory (DHPL); Donna
Rhodes, a nutritionist with the BHNRC's
Food Surveys
Research Group; and William V. Rumpler, a physiologist in the DHPL,
conducted the study to determine the accuracy of label weights on 99 food items
prepared for human volunteers during controlled feeding studies. Only 37 food
items were found to be statistically accurate. Fifteen items were below weight,
making them potentially out of compliance with federal guidelines. However, 47
products were found to contain more food than promised.
According to Conway, the researchers concluded that diabetics and other
people on strict dietary regimens also might want to weigh portions to ensure
they match weights listed on a variety of packages.
The food products evaluated were selected based on the needs of two recent
feeding studies at BHNRC.
The federal government requires the food industry to meet guidelines for a
minimum weight per package. These guidelines are meant to protect consumers
from shortages in product weight.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
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