Your favorite snack may well contain more calories than you think.
This month a lawsuit filed in California against Kroger alleged false advertising after prosecutors found its ‘Carbmaster’ bread claimed to contain 30 calories per slice on the front of the packaging but 50 calories per slice on the back.
It is just the latest in more than a hundred lawsuits over mislabeling filed every year, with past cases including a 300-calorie Chipotle burrito that turned out to be nearly 800 calories and a 50-calorie hamburger bun that was actually 100 calories.
Dr Susan Roberts, who researches food labels at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire, said she wasn’t surprised by the cases of mislabeling.
‘It’s almost impossible to actually police all of these [labels],’ she said. ‘To a large extent, we’re dependent on the honesty of the food companies.’
The above picture shows the front of Kroger’s Carbmaster bread and then the back, with both giving different calorie counts per slice
Others to face lawsuits over calorie counts include Chipotle, which previously advertised its Chorizo burrito as being 300 calories. The company said this was in error, with the 300 refering only to the Chorizo in the burrito – with it actually being nearer 800 calories in total
The expert told the Los Angeles Times that the issue is largely caused by the FDA allowing food companies tochoose from several different methods to calculate calories, with some being more reliable than others.
A calorie is a unit of energy, with these required every day for the body to carry out vital functions like breathing, circulating blood and physical activity.
The average man is recommended to consume about 2,600 calories per day, while the average woman is told to consume about 2,000 calories.
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, who brought the case against Kroger, said: ‘Consumers rely on nutritional information to make important decisions about their personal health and wellbeing. For some consumers, these decisions are based upon medical necessity.
‘False advertising of calories can mislead, or even endanger, consumers, and it provides an unfair advantage over competitors who are advertising in compliance with FDA guidelines.’
Others to face proposed actions over lawsuits included Crumbl Cookies based in Utah. One of their cookies was equivalent to four servings, or 760 calories
The lawsuit alleges that Kroger falsely advertised the calorie content of its ‘Carbmaster’ bread from November 2018 to June 2022.
During that time, the front of the packaging prominently displayed a calorie number per slice that was 20 calories less than the one advertised on the back.
In another instance, hamburger buns from Kroger were labeled with 50 calories per serving on the front, even though the back said each contained 100 calories.
To calculate calorie content, the FDA recommends that manufacturers use the Atwater system.
This asigns specific values to macronutrients — carbs, proteins, fats and alcohol — to calculate calorie content.
These are four calories per gram of carbohydrate, four calories per gram of protein, nine calories per gram of fat and seven calories per gram of alcohol.
Other class action lawsuits over labeling have been proposed against manufactureres including Crumbl cookie, a gourmet cookie maker in Utah.
The proposal said that Crumbl was misleading customers by advertising that one serving of its cookies was equal to 190 calories, with each cookie sold by the company actually four servings or equivalent to 760 calories.
In 2020, more than 100 lawsuits were filed alleging false labeling — a category that includes accusations of underreporting or overreporting calorie counts as well as misstating serving sizes or claims foods were prepared in a certain way, such as being smoked.
In a previous class-action lawsuit brought in 2016 against Chipotle, customers complained about the 300-calorie Chorizo burrito after saying it left them feeling full afterward.
They then calculated that the burrito likely actually contained 1,050 calories in total, more than three times the advertized figure.
Chipotle later apologized for the error, and said the 300 calorie unit was meant to refer to the Chorizo alone.
