John Myers
Portion information on packaging is often unrealistically small: Most people eat larger portions of muesli or crisps, for example, than the manufacturer says.
The essentials in brief:
- On average, our nearly 1,500 respondents eat more than twice as much chips and cereal as the labels say.
- In our opinion, the manufacturers calculate their products with the mini-portions “healthy”: Sugar and fat contents make a better impression this way.
- With such products, the information confuses instead of informing. They shouldn’t be on the packaging.
Portion sizes that manufacturers voluntarily print on food packaging often do not match actual eating habits. This is the conclusion reached by the consumer centers in a nationwide, interactive survey.
According to this, the participants consumed on average more than twice as much muesli or crisps as the portion size stated on the labels.
We therefore call on the food industry to print meaningful information on the packaging. Important information such as sugar and fat content can then be assessed at a glance. For some products, the information does not help at all and should be left out completely.
Manufacturer portion sizes don’t pass the reality check
1,490 consumers took part in the non-representative survey. They should fill up the portion of muesli and chips that corresponds to their usual eating habits. The average portion size for muesli was 81 grams, for chips it was 63 grams.
The actual servings were more than twice the serving recommended by the manufacturers on the packaging. The muesli was 40 grams and the chips 30 grams.
Smaller portions suggest lower sugar and fat levels
There is a big gap between labeling and reality. In our opinion, the manufacturers calculate their products with the mini-portions “healthy”. Smaller portion sizes automatically result in smaller amounts of sugar or fat, for example, which consumers supposedly consume.
An example calculation based on the products used in the survey makes it clear that the respondents consume on average around 28 grams of sugar for muesli instead of the stated 14, and for the chips it is even 20.8 grams of fat instead of 9.9.
Uniform portion sizes cannot be determined
According to the results of the survey, in our opinion, the realistic indication of portion sizes on the packaging of these products is not possible at all: the quantities filled in by consumers varied greatly. The values were between 11 and 302 grams for the muesli and between 3 and 250 grams for the chips. 250 grams of chips already correspond to the entire pack.
Many respondents also had difficulty estimating the amount of a portion correctly. From four bowls of different amounts of cereal or chips, they were asked to find the one that matched the serving size on the label. Only 39 percent of the participants were correct with the muesli, with the chips it was 50 percent.
Most people are familiar with the nutritional values per serving that are prominently displayed on the front of the packaging. More than 86 percent of those surveyed knew these pictograms, but only a fraction paid attention to them and used them as a guide.
The majority wanted clearer and more understandable information, such as labeling that refers to 100 grams or an identifiable portion. Traffic light marking also met with greater approval.
We demand meaningful portion information on packaging
We therefore demand that manufacturers should dispense with portion information for foods that cannot be clearly portioned, such as crisps or muesli. Arbitrarily selected portion sizes confuse instead of informing. The information on the label can only be useful for packaging with specific portions, such as a bar, a slice or a cup.
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