"Per-Serve" Deception: Reading Tricky Food Labels
A curious foodie who can't stop flipping ingredients labels and assessing wait, whats that? OG Scoop decodes the science behind every food in plain, snackable English with OG Twist.
Picture yourself in a supermarket looking for "real juice." You find the flavor you want, but as a health-conscious buyer, you turn the pack to check the sugar content. In the nutritional information box, you see the total sugar is 15 gm. You think for a second, put it into your shopping cart, and move on.
What if I tell you that you have been deceived by "Per Serve" values?
In this blog, let us understand how brands use "per serve" concept in nutritional information and how it impacts you, in simple English but with an OG Twist!
How Real is Real Fruit's Nutritional Info?
Let's check the Real fruit's nutritional label. Here, we're looking at a 180 ml pack, so we expect the nutritional information on the back to show the exact values of ingredients per pack, right? Well, not really!
Here is the nutritional information for this pack:
Look how funny this is—the pack size is 180 ml, the serving size mentioned is 150 ml, and the nutritional information is given per 100 ml. If you do not read this carefully, you might mistakenly think this pack has 15 gm of total sugar, whereas this single pack actually has 27 gm of sugar.
Now, why would a brand prefer per 100 ml numbers? Ideally, the numbers are meant to standardize the comparison between different brands or products, but one aspect is to reduce the intimidating numbers per pack—who wants to showcase 27 gm of sugar on the label!
Is it legally wrong?
No, this is as per the food labeling rules, which standardize liquids on a per 100 ml basis for comparability. So, this is legally fine, but brands should prioritize consumer understanding rather than just meeting minimum regulatory compliance, unless they intend to obscure the full picture.
In addition to per 100 ml nutritional information, brands should include a per pack nutritional profile so even a child can understand the label!
Conclusion
We are not saying Indian food labels are always misleading because they provide false information, but most of the time, they present information in a format that people do not naturally think in. It's high time we have per pack information and not just per serving information; until then, it's more like solving a math problem!
If you like what you read, then do subscribe below and never miss an update from The OG Scoop - The bold truth about food ingredients. No sugar-coating, no fake labels. Just real awareness.
