Pickles
Posted by stride4unity on Mar 17, 2006 · Member since Feb 2005 · 211 posts
I bought a jar of pickles, and the label reads "0 calories". If pickles are made from cucumbers, which have calories, how are pickles calorie-less?! Does anyone have any ideas?
How big is the serving size? Cucumbers are mostly water, and while they do have calories (of course) they don't have many. My guess is the FDA has some rule like "if a serving has less than 5 calories, the product can be labelled as calorie-free."
I know they have such a rule about the new trans-fat labeling. If a serving contains less than 0.5g trans fat the product can be labelled as trans-fat free. This is why you'll see hydrogenated oils in the list of ingredients and see 0 grams trans fat on the nutrition label. Clever (and conniving) companies can simply reduce the serving size enough so that a serving has less than 0.5 g trans fat and then call it trans-fat free.
Elizabeth