{"id":18628,"date":"2022-01-14T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=18628"},"modified":"2021-12-29T12:24:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:24:12","slug":"deciphering-food-labels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2022\/01\/14\/deciphering-food-labels\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciphering Food Labels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever noticed that the label on a package of rice or\ndried beans says that the serving size is \u00bc cup? Who eats a \u00bc cup of rice as a\nserving? I decided to dive into the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)\nregulations about labels to find out the reasoning behind portion sizes on\ngrains and beans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the FDA\u2019s website, \u201cBy law, serving sizes must\nbe based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much\nthey should consume\u201d (1). Information from national surveys are used to set\nlabel portion sizes for everything from bagels (a serving is 110 grams) to wine\ncoolers (12 ounces) to ice cream (2\/3 cup). Of course, if a package is a\nsingle-serving container, the serving size must be the entire bottle even if it\ncontains more than the portion size set by the FDA (2).  For example, if the FDA\u2019s serving size for\nsoda is 12 ounces and a bottle of soda has 20 ounces, the serving size for that\nproduct would be 1 bottle (20 ounces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA has designated 45 grams of dry product or 140 grams of\nprepared product as the serving size for grains such as rice and barley and 35\ngrams of dry product as the serving size for dried beans (3). Food companies\nare required to use a common household measurement like cups or tablespoons on\nthe label and cannot just indicate how many grams there are in a serving (2).\nThus, food producers must decide how to express 45 grams of dry grains or 35 grams\nof dry beans in terms of cups. Based on what I\u2019ve observed, it\u2019s common to use\n1\/4 cup of dry product as the portion size for dried beans and dry grains. Some\ncompanies do specify 1\/4 cup (dry) but if they don\u2019t, you\u2019re safe to assume\nthat if a quarter cup is listed as a serving, it\u2019s likely to be the dry amount\nof the product. Some packages also include a statement along the lines of\nserving size: \u00bc cup (makes \u00be cup prepared) but manufacturers are not required\nto do this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re trying to use the food label to figure out how\nmany calories (or carbohydrates or other nutrients) are in a dry grain or dried\nbean that you\u2019ve prepared, you have a few options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n