So here is the Nutrition Facts label from Kellogg's original flavour Special K cereal.
It says a serving contains 110 Calories and is 1.25 cups in size. (click it if you need to make it bigger).GIF)
Now let's look at the Nutrition Facts label from Kellogg's new Special K Fruit and Yogurt Flavour.
It says a serving contains 120 Calories, but now it's only 0.75 cups in size.
It's examples like this that drive home just how lax, misleading and easily exploitable our current labeling laws are.
Clearly here Kellogg's wants consumers to think that their wonderful new flavour has only 10 more calories than original Special K, when in fact by volume it has almost double the calories (81% more calories per cup of the Fruit and Yogurt flavour).
Let me ask you, how difficult would it be for Health Canada to push for legislation that for instance for cereals would require all cereals have a standard 1 cup serving size label representation? Of course, this is only one example - misleading labeling is everywhere, mainly because Big Food's able to get away with it and because most folks don't take the time to read labels carefully or to compare.
Shame on you Kellogg's for what to me looks like your obvious attempt at deception, and shame on you Canadian government for not having laws that would prevent this type of overt label deception.
Posts
In defence of the manufacturer, they would say it's a fair comparison because the two servings are the same size by WEIGHT. (Who knew yogourt was so heavy?)
ReplyDeleteOf course, when we dish out our cereal, we don't judge by weight; we look at volume. We pour until it's about 2/3 up the bowl (or whatever gauge we use). So yeah, we're probably going to pour in the same amount -- and get a whole lot more calories.
Servings are by weight, generally. 30 grams is a bit low (typically a cereal serving is 40 grams). But it's a weight loss cereal, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, Kellogg's is bound by the NLEA serving regulations from the FDA, so they actually don't have much leeway here.
Health Canada sets reference amounts for single servings of all food categories. Food manufacturers are not required to use the reference amount as the label serving size, however, many do.
ReplyDeleteReference amounts are set by food weight, not volume. The reference amount from Health Canada for cold cereal is 30g. Due to variation in cereal density, one cup of one cereal is not the same weight as one cup of another cereal.
So, in this case, I am not sure that Kellogg's is being deceptive, they are actually just following the suggested 30g reference amount from the government. Most cereal labels do list a 30g serving with varrying volumes. As another example - the serving size of Kellogg’s Bran Buds is also 30g, but the volume is only 1/3 cup. It is a very heavy cereal. Plain Special K is so light that it requires a lot more volume to reach 30g.
Marc - just to note - Kellogg's Canada is not required to follow NLEA regulations by FDA. That is the US system of labelling. Here in Canada, we have our own labelling regulations set by Health Canada.