False advertising

I think processed food makers are getting away with nutritional fraud because of how they report nutrition facts on their packaging. I think they need to start being a little more realistic about what they classify as a portion.

Case in point - Chef Boyardee makes this cute little nuke-in-a-bowl Mac & Cheese in a 400g size. You read the nutrition facts and think to yourself, that's not too horribly bad. But those listed facts are based on half the bowl! HALF! 200g of food, totalling 170 calories. So in reality, you have to double all the figures to get the big picture on what's in the whole bowl. I'm sorry, but the whole bowl is a serving size. I don't know anyone who would only eat half the bowl's contents - unless it really tasted gross and they just couldn't bear to eat the whole thing.

It's the same story for single serving containers of beverages. If the container holds 437ml, don't be quoting the facts based on 2/3 of a container.

Also, if you're going to tell me how the contents' fibre, fat, vitamin A and iron rate as a percentage of my daily requirements, why do you leave out cholesterol as a percentage (which by the way - only seems to be the case in Canada)? I have no idea if 5mg of cholesterol is good, bad or somewhere in the middle. Does Canada not have an official opinion on how much cholesterol we should be getting? Do we need to invent a cholesterol scale?

So here's a message to processed food makers: Stop it! Quit using unrealistic portion sizes to make your nutrition facts look better than what they are. It's not fair to those of us that actually want an accurate picture of what we're eating. Trust me, if I desperately want that Mac & Cheese, I'm not going to let the fact that it has 56% of my sodium allowance for the day sway my decision.