Welcome to the Food Label blog
We need your eyes!
When you come across a confusing food label, a claim about health, nutrition or farming practices that don’t make sense, or even a label that you like and trust, we’d like you to snap a photo and share it with us. Then, check back here and see what your fellow members are submitting, and what our food label experts have to say about it.
You'll be shaping Consumer Reports work on the important issue of food labels, you'll be helping us put companies on notice, and - perhaps most importantly - you'll be joining a community of fellow CR members working on projects like this around the country.
What's in a serving?
Amy posted this in our Consumer 101 Facebook group, and wrote:
"Since it says on the front of your “Perfect Servings” box that it has 2-4 servings, it be more useful to identify servings per package as 2 or 4 on the Nutrition Information panel instead of 6...This defeats the purpose of nutritional labeling, and most likely means that a person will unknowingly consume many more calories than intended or desired when sharing this coffee cake because of the misrepresentation of servings per package in your “Perfect “Servings” products."
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Real Cheese!
Arlette from Albuquerque, NM, saw this label, and wrote in:
“The box claims it's made with 100% real cheese. Of course one expects flour in a cracker, but the white cheddar cheese is the last ingredient, and the product admits to having less than 2% cheddar. So 100% real cheese is not a lie, but it sure is deceptive.”
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No added Sugar... with Sugar?!
Daniela from Austin writes:
The side of the can said "no added sugar." Yet the nutrition label shows "cold-fermented corn sugar." What gives?
Made with olive oil
Stan from Illinois found this label, and sent it to use because “The label prominently displays "with olive oil" but the ingredients list indicates the product contains more soybean oil than olive oil.
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What does "cage free" really mean?
Rita from Columbus, OH, who found this label, says:
“There seems to be a lot of confusion over cage-free eggs… "Cage-free" chickens are kept in hen houses, often in cramped conditions, and may or may not have access to the outdoors or pasture.”
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