The point of the nutrition label is to help you find out what is in the package. However, the recent David protein bar lawsuit revealed a loophole in the Food and Drug Administration’s regulations around nutrition labels that most people are unaware of. Basically, there is quite a large margin of maneuver between what is described by the label and the data actually received.
In case you weren’t following the lawsuit, it claimed that independent lab tests showed that David’s protein bars contain 400% more fat and 80% more fat. calories as advertised. This prompted comparisons to Regina George getting “healthy” bars Mean Girls which made him fat. Dávid’s founder, Peter Rahal, acknowledged the cultural reference Xit says, “No one gets your Regina George.” (Rahal explained that the confusion stems from the way calories are measured—what the human body can absorb and use, as opposed to measuring things like fibersweeteners and fat substitutes which are non-digestible calories.) The per was dismissed on tuesday.
But that still doesn’t mean food labels are 100% accurate. FDA food label regulations allow for margin of error for everything from fat, calories and added sugar to nutrients. How concerned should you be about this? We asked nutritionists for more information.
FDA food labeling regulations leave a large margin of error.
According to the FDA regulations around the food labels can be 20% excess with fat, calories, added sugar, carbohydrates, fiberand sugar alcohols. So if you eat 200 calories protein It can contain 40 calories before the FDA considers intervention.
At the same time, nutrients such as fiber, protein and vitamins can be 20% lower like what’s on the label. Basically, what the label says and what you actually ingest can be very different. “These tags give you the big picture of the snapshot” Jessica Cording, RD, CDN, its author The Little Book of Game Changerssays SELF. “Nutrition information is a football number.”
The FDA not pre-approved food labels, which puts the onus on manufacturers to be accurate about the contents of their products. This isn’t to say that companies are intentionally trying to falsify their numbers—nutrition information is simply difficult to accurately measure.
“Food labeling is based on a mix of laboratory analysis and database estimates, all of which are variable,” said Scott Keatley, RD, co-owner of the company. Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapysays SELF. “Ingredients vary from batch to batch, processing changes nutrient composition, and methods have margins of error. The FDA builds in the tolerance so manufacturers can comply without constant redesign or relabeling due to minor fluctuations.”
