Food labelling grr

[ladyofastolat]

(Dried) Egg pappardelle, "bySainsbury's" (ingredients: durum wheat semolina, free range egg (16%)): kcal per 100g: 372

(Dried) "Pappardelle made with free range eggs," Sainsbury's Taste the Difference (ingredients: durum wheat semolina, free range egg (24%)): kcal per 100g: 141

Something does not compute here! One would expect a slightly higher egg content to make some difference to the calorie content, but not this much.

But the plot thickens. Version 1 claims that a serving is 100g. Version 2 claims that a serving is 200g. Presumably, in version 1, 100g refers to dry weight, whereas in version 2, is refers to cooked weight, with the weight doubled by water. Nowhere is this made clear. And, in this case, version 2 is particularly unhelpful to me as I stand there with my weighing scales, measuring out a sensible portion size, since if I do it without measuring, it always balloons into enough to feed a hungry army. I don't often cook dried pasta, so can never remember what's a sensible portion size, so I could very easily have measured out 200g of dried pasta per person today, were it not for the fact that I still had a tiny bit left of the old packet left, and could compare.

I do appreciate nutritional information on food, but sometimes they seem to go out of their way to obscure what they really mean. Grump!

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I've never really got into the mentality of leftovers. I really should. I do cook stews and things in bulk, but I apportion them out to tupperwares of Exactly The Right Size and freeze them, so they can be thawed out one meal at a time, no leftovers involved. I was thinking about this just the other day, when someone said, "oh, just use leftovers," taking it for granted that everyone had leftover remains of many past dinners in their fridge. "But I don't have any leftovers!" I wailed sadly. "I never do!"

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

I never have leftovers either -- I cook the amount we're going to eat! (And I somehow picked up that a serving of dried pasta = 75g, for what it's worth.)