• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Food Labels

slip

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.

The legislation allows for various methods of calculating the nutrient values. It does not necessarily require laboratory analysis and it may be possible for a food business operator to calculate the values themselves depending on the type of product.

The declared values in the nutrition table are average values* and must be based on:

  • the manufacturer's analysis of the food
  • a calculation from the known or actual average values of the ingredients used; or
  • a calculation from generally established and accepted data
*The nutrient values are average values to take into account the natural variation in foodstuffs due to, for example, seasonality or supplier differences. However, there is EU guidance on the permitted tolerances for nutrient values which should be consulted.
Click to expand...
 
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 :p

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