No, serving sizes on food labels don’t tell us how much we must always eat

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating sets out how much we must always eat from each of the food groups. If we eat the advisable variety of “standard serves” from each food group for our age and sex, it puts us in position to have a healthy, balanced eating regimen.

But what’s a standard serve? And does it match what’s on our food labels?

Standard serves

Despite the name, standard serves aren’t very standard, even within the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Serves might be described by energy (kilojoules or kJ for brief) contained in a serve, units of food resembling “one medium apple”, or “one slice of bread”, by weight, or by volumes like a cup.

A “serve” can be different between each of the food groups and even throughout the food groups.

One serve of grains is about 500kJ. That’s one English muffin but only half a bread roll. Or it may very well be half a cup of porridge, one-quarter of a cup of muesli, or three-quarters of a cup of wheat cereal flakes.

One serve of dairy is 500-600kJ, which may very well be one cup of milk, but is simply three-quarters of a cup of yoghurt, or a half cup of ricotta cheese. Hard cheeses are defined by slices, with two slices to a serve, assuming each slice is about 20g.

Serves on food labels

Nearly all packaged foods in Australia have nutrition information panels. These include information meant to assist us make higher food decisions.

The exact information is determined by the food. But they must at the very least include how much energy (kJ), protein, fat (total and saturated), carbohydrates (total and sugars) and salt (sodium) is within the product. These contents are all the time listed twice, per 100g (100mL for liquids) and .

But the serving on the label has nothing to do with the usual serves within the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. The serving size on the label just isn’t a advice on how much it’s best to eat – it is set by the manufacturer. It’s based on how much they expect an individual to typically eat, or the unit size the product is eaten in.

This may very well be different to a normal serve. For example, the labelled serving size on a chocolate bar is likely to be “one bar” – 53g of chocolate containing 1,020kJ. But the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating says a serve is half a small bar (25g) or about 600kJ, and it’s advisable we limit discretionary food (junk food) to one serve per day.

Comparing serving sizes between brand and package sizes

In Australia, there are not any rules about how these serving sizes are set. A serving won’t be the identical in similar products, or in several brands of the identical product.

This could make products hard to check. The serving size of a soy sauce in a single brand, for instance, may very well be one-tenth of a soy sauce made by one other company.

To add to the confusion, a serving also doesn’t necessarily reflect portion size: how much an individual consumes in a meal or sitting.

A 250g packet of microwave white rice, for instance, is likely to be labelled as having two 125g servings. This is since the manufacturer expects it to serve two people. But considered one of those labelled servings is sort of two standard serves of grains.

To make it much more confusing, in the identical brand of rice, a 450g family pack may very well be labelled as having 4 serves, with each serve 112g. That’s 10% smaller than the serving size within the smaller packet. But it assumes a family of 4 could split the pack between them in a meal. So, on this package, one labelled serving size could be the equivalent of about 1.7 standard serves of grains.

How serves on labels impact our food decisions

Even though labelled serving sizes aren’t related to straightforward serves or the advisable amounts that must be eaten, research shows consumers often interpret the labelled servings as being recommendations for portion size or for following dietary guidelines.

Studies show the listed serving size impacts how much people decide to eat. Larger serving sizes on labels could make it appear that a big serve is advisable, resulting in people eating or serving themselves more. This has been shown with several foodsincluding cookies, cereal, lasagne and cheese crackers.

But for some foods, like lollieslarger serving sizes could make them look less healthy, resulting in reduced consumption or smaller portion sizes. This is probably going because the massive variety of kilojoules stands out within the per serving data.

So what do you have to do?

Because serving sizes can vary by product and manufacturer, it’s easiest to make use of the per 100g or 100mL information, as an alternative of the per serve information when comparing products. But think concerning the actual weight or volume you’ll consumer while you consider the way it matches your every day intakes.

The advisable eating regimen for the common adult is predicated on eating 8,700kJ of energy per day. To get this much energy from a balanced eating regimen, that’s 50g protein, 70g fat and 310g carbohydrates. We also need to aim for 24g or less of saturated fats, and 30g or more of fibre.

But needs will differ by life stage, activity level, sex, your current weight and your weight goals. There are online calculators to estimate your requirements.

Memorising serving sizes and guidelines might be hard. To make it easy, you may print a replica of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating food groups and serving sizes to maintain where you may see them when preparing food.