Mislabeled Bread (In the US at least)

[GRardB]

I'm not sure if you guys have the same experiences, but I find the craziest labels on food. It amazes me that the FDA allows certain things to be printed on certain foods.

 

Here's what I'm talking about:

 

I once saw tortillas that were advertised as "100% Whole Wheat" although it had "wheat flour" in it (and we all know that "wheat flour" is "white flour" disguised as whole wheat).

 

I once saw tortillas (I'm pretty sure) that were advertised as "100% Whole Wheat White." WHAT?! What does that mean??? The ingredients showed that it was a mixture of whole wheat flour and white flour, but still, that label is very misleading.

 

Today my dad and I rode our bikes to Whole Foods. I noticed they sold a pizza crust (this is the first time I've seen it), and it was labeled as "Whole Wheat Pizza Crust." The second ingredient was "Unbleached Wheat Flour." The first ingredient was whole wheat flour, but again, the crust is not truly whole wheat.

 

I once went to a bagel shop and asked "Do you have whole wheat bagels?" The response I got was "Yes, we have wheat bagels." As far as I know, all bagel shops make bagels out of wheat. He took the bagel off a shelf labeled "WW," which I understand as "whole wheat," although the bagel looked exactly the same, although maybe a tiny bit darker than the white bagels sold at the shop. How can people get away with this?

 

The last complaint is not as bad, although it did trick my dad once. I notice lots of breads are labeled as having an X amount of grams of whole wheat per slice. This is fine, except when the label is:

"15 Grams of

WHOLE WHEAT

Per Slice"

It doesn't look as bad in the forum, but the words "WHOLE WHEAT" are always capitalized and in a font 3 times the size as the other words, trying to trick people into thinking that it's whole wheat bread.

 

This kind of stuff reminds me of something my dad read about the FDA allowing companies to label their products as organic if some of the ingredients are not organic because they aren't available in enormous quantities, thus being "conventional." So that means that Smuckers and JIF can label their peanut butter as organic if they can't get enough organic peanuts. That's ridiculous.

 

So my questions are:

 

Have you guys ever seen these kinds of tricks?

If so, does it anger you?

Should something be done about it?

Are there any people/groups fighting for better food labeling?

 

I hope it turns out to be an interesting topic

Gerard

[BethL]

Hello, I was just thinking about the whole wheat white bread the other day. My son won't eat whole wheat bread unless it is soft so I seen the whole wheat white and bought him that. But this is what I found from the Mayo clinic online site.

 

White whole-wheat bread looks and tastes like white bread but has the same nutritional benefits as regular whole-wheat bread, also called whole-grain bread.

 

Government guidelines recommend that you eat at least three servings of whole grains a day. One way to get whole grains in your diet is to eat whole-wheat bread. Unfortunately, many people — especially children — don't like the taste or texture of regular whole-wheat bread. So, food companies have introduced white whole-wheat bread.

 

Regular white bread is made with refined grains — which go through a process that strips out certain parts of the grain. But white whole-wheat bread — like regular whole-wheat bread — is made with the whole grain.

 

The difference between white whole wheat and regular whole wheat is in the type of wheat used. Regular whole-wheat bread is made with red wheat, which is dark in color and has a slightly bitter taste. White whole-wheat bread is made with an albino variety of wheat, which is lighter in color and has a sweeter, milder flavor. To get a softer texture, the whole grains of albino wheat go through an extra processing procedure.

 

So how do you know if bread is whole grain? According to the Food and Drug Administration, whole-grain products must contain a least 51 percent whole grains by weight. This means "whole grain" should be first on the ingredient list. So check the ingredient list. If it doesn't say "whole grain" first, it isn't whole-grain bread.

[BethL]

Also I just love the way they put the words "made with" in tiny print before the words Whole wheat or 100% whole wheat (which doesn't mean the entire product is 100 whole wheat, it means the wheat use 100% having all three components. At least this is what I always thought.

[Karmacharger]

There's a bread company here who makes bagels but lists the nutritional value for 1/2 a bagel so unless you're really careful, you won't catch it. And instead of consuming 180 calories, you're getting a whopping 360!

 

I also once read the ingredients on "calcium chews" and they were listed in "alphabetical order" so they wouldn't have to admit that sugar was the primary ingredient.

 

The sad thing is, a lot of people still don't read labels.

[xjohanx]

in sweden we have a bit harder laws when it comes to labeling food but some companys find tricks to fool people anyway. but bread is almost never 100% whole wheat since whole wheat don't ferment well(i think that's the right word). if you want 100% whole wheat bread you should try knäckebröd (crispbread)