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Food Labels

slip

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,523
Location
Oxford
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I've tried searching the internet for this but for want of a better simile, I can't see the wheat from the chaff.

So there's some sort of government food agency that lays down the law about food labels on packaged goods, doing a good job but as always could be better.

But who and how do those figures that appear in said labels come to being? How are they worked out or tested in a laboratory?

It's very difficult to find any evidence that shows how these are compiled (or my googling skills aren't as good as I thought!) so how much trust can we put on them?
 
They were supposed to be tested in a lab using a bomb calorimeter @slip. The food is placed inside and surrounded by water, burned completely then the resulting rise in water temperature is measured to determine the value.

However, I reckon they use the Atwater system taking the amount of protein, fats, carbs etc. going into a product and doing multiplication on the amounts to get a roughly similar amount.
 
Cheers @db89. The Calorimeter will give you the amount of energy in the item, not necessarily the break down of it's components. And the Atwater system is about as old as the hills I think, and Theoretical and Assumptions are words associated with it!
 
I think it's still used though - as best as I could find we are using EU guidance from circa 2011. Below is taken from here. Everywhere US related seems to suggest the Atwater system is also used over there although there has been some updates to it since it was blindly drawn up in the 1800s by the sounds of it.

 
I know when the Morrisons fishmonger worked out the carbs in a 1kg fish pie for me he just added the sauce carbs to those in the pack of mash they use

Sorry no help and no idea how they do it properly .
 
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