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Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

blog.alexwendland.com

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Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#11
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as a counterpoint, in Europe the requirement is to specify nutrition data per 100 g of "usable" product. Some products are e.g. intended to be added to water before consumption, then the nutrition is for that final form, not for the concentrate that you actually buy. But it's really practical, it makes it dead easy to e.g. compare calories, sugar, fat and so on between e.g. milk and apple sauce (to take random e…

This seems to make a lot of sense since there are no calories or nutrients in water.

Eh.

Sometimes it is used for milk too

Example:

"Calories for final product using 2% milk"

And it's really confusing for someone like me who is tracking calories

Iirc it was even worse because it was for a bag of dehydrated potatoes that used a mix of water and milk on the recipe.

Another example was noodles, it is sometimes said for 100ml of finished product (at this point tell me the calories for the entirety of the pack or 100gr of it)

I prefer dry weight.

Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#13
post #5
post #2

Keep in mind that the FDA defines serving size: The term serving or serving size means an amount of food customarily consumed per eating occasion by persons 4 years of age or older which is expressed in a common household measure that is appropriate to the food. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B... This means manufacturer's are free to make serving sizes based on how little a hypothetical f…

Just as a counterpoint, in Europe the requirement is to specify nutrition data per 100 g of "usable" product. Some products are e.g. intended to be added to water before consumption, then the nutrition is for that final form, not for the concentrate that you actually buy. But it's really practical, it makes it dead easy to e.g. compare calories, sugar, fat and so on between e.g. milk and apple sauce (to take random e…

> in Europe the requirement is to specify nutrition data per 100 g of "usable" product

Source? that doesn't seem true and seems prone to the same serving size tricks used in US. My experience it that nutritional values per 100g of product (actual raw product no matter what its final form is supposed to be) are always listed first. Then if you're supposed to mix it with water there can be e.g., optionally, a nutritional table per 100ml of finished product.

Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#14
post #5
post #2

Keep in mind that the FDA defines serving size: The term serving or serving size means an amount of food customarily consumed per eating occasion by persons 4 years of age or older which is expressed in a common household measure that is appropriate to the food. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B... This means manufacturer's are free to make serving sizes based on how little a hypothetical f…

Just as a counterpoint, in Europe the requirement is to specify nutrition data per 100 g of "usable" product. Some products are e.g. intended to be added to water before consumption, then the nutrition is for that final form, not for the concentrate that you actually buy. But it's really practical, it makes it dead easy to e.g. compare calories, sugar, fat and so on between e.g. milk and apple sauce (to take random e…

In Europe, lactose is sugar.

I am drinking an energy drink with a big "zero calories + zero sugar" label.

On the nutritional content, it actually says 2 kcal per 100 ml even though there is <0.1g carbs in the recipe.

Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#16

Famously, Tic Tacs are less than .5g and so contain 0 sugar on the label even though they are pretty much entirely sugar.

It says 94g sugar/100g.

It depends on the jurisdiction. Some places require totals per 100g, whereas others are "per serving", which allows you to say 0 to pretty much everything if that "serving" is 0.5g or less.

USA: https://www.food4less.com/p/tic-tac-berry-flavored-mints/000...

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Strawberry-Fields-Singles-Ounce-Pack/d...

Italy: https://worldofeurope.com/shop/hard-candy/product-289/

Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#18

Famously, Tic Tacs are less than .5g and so contain 0 sugar on the label even though they are pretty much entirely sugar.

It says 94g sugar/100g.

You must be European. In the US, nutrition facts are per-serving and the amounts are rounded.

A single serving of Tic-Tac is less than 0.5g, and therefore it has 0g of everything.

Re: Can a product with "0g sugar" contain lactose?

#19

Famously, Tic Tacs are less than .5g and so contain 0 sugar on the label even though they are pretty much entirely sugar.

It says 94g sugar/100g.

It does in sane countries where nutrition labels are required to also include the per-100g stats.

But in North America, they only need to show the per-serving column. Combine that with the <0.5g rule and the fact they are allowed to pick the serving size, you end up with tic tacs which don't mention any sugar on their labels.

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