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Last year “Good Morning America” hired a lab to test a dozen packaged food products to see if the nutrients matched the labels. All 12 products had label inaccuracies of some sort and three were actually off by more than 20 percent on items like sodium and total fat.
But even if the label is present and accurate, it must be more than 20 percent off in order for it to violate federal law, and government food labs have a 10 percent margin of error. This means an item labeled as having 400 calories can legally have up to 480 calories, plus there is the 10 percent testing margin of error.
There are other food-label loopholes to watch out for as well, including:
•Ingredients called “incidental additives” do not have to be listed anywhere on labels. These include substances
transferred to food via packaging and "ingredients of other ingredients" that are present at "insignificant levels" and
have no "technical or functional effect."
•A label can state it is “free from” a substance if there is less than 0.5 grams of it per serving. So a product that claims
to be gluten-free or trans-fat-free can actually contain up to 0.5 grams per serving. This may seem insignificant, but if
you eat more than one serving (as many people do) it will add up fast.
•Undesirable ingredients are often “hidden” on labels. A classic example of this is with the dangerous food additive MSG,
which is often disguised under ingredients like glutamate or glutamic acid.
•“Natural contaminants” are also allowed and present in your food. This includes things like insect parts, insect eggs, and
rodent hairs.
•Many other items are also exempt from being labeled, or may be stated in a way that makes it hard to find. This includes
genetically modified ingredients, irradiated ingredients, and ingredients from cloned animals.
Posted by Dr. Mercola, June 4, 2009.
To read the full article go to: Warning: Food Labels Can Fool Even the Smartest People
If you depend on “Nutrition Facts” panels to choose which foods to eat, you’re in for a big surprise!
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