Why does diet pop say "low calorie" when it actually has no calories?

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Elite Member
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Oct 28, 1999
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I've got a Diet Mountain dew sitting in front of me, and on the can it says "low calorie". When you look at nutritional information on the back, it in fact has zero calories. Is there some sort of rule or regulation that they can't put "calorie free" on the front?
 

Dark4ng3l

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Sep 17, 2000
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It's almost impossible(almost because mathematically everything is possible) to make a compound without any calories in it. Even if it has 1E-1234 calories in it it still has calories in it, and that number easilly rounds down to zero.
 

dullard

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May 21, 2001
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The nutrition labeling requirements are quite lenient. Anything listed on it can have an error of ±20% plus they can choose to round in any direction they want. For example, if an item truely has 100 Calories, they can legally claim anything between 80 and 120 Calories. The reason for this is since food often varies. One apple might be larger than another apple, so the amount of calories will also vary. One chip might be less broken than another chip, so the amount of fat may vary. When it comes to highly controlled things like canned pop, this leeway isn't needed but the companies still want to make their product look as good as possible. So you generally see them on the low end of the calories and fat, and on the high end of vitamins, protein, and fiber. It is legal but quite misleading. In the case of your pop it might have 1.19 Calories. Take off that 20% leeway and it becomes 0.95 Calories. Now round down since they can and they list 0 as the number of Calories.

The labels like low fat, less fat, fat free, low calories, calorie free, etc. are all defined quite rigorously. Only something that is truely calorie free can claim to be calorie free. Only pure water can meet that claim. So since they probably have about 1 Calorie, they can only say low calorie.

They can be even more sneaky if they wish. For example think of 12 oz pop that truely has 1.26 Calories. Take off 20% and you have 1.01 Calories. Oops they cannot round down to zero! What to do, what to do... Oh I know, just say the serving size is 11 ounces instead of the full 12 ounces. That lowers the number of calories per serving just enough to list 0 on the label. This is the one trick that I'm the most angered about. I tend to see it the most often on juice box drinks - but I've seen it many other places. Who on earth eats only 90% of an item and always throws the last bite away?
 

Wallydraigle

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Also if they say that there are two servings in the can instead of just one they can effectively double the legal amount of calories they don't have to claim.
 

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Thanks for the posts guys :) I was pretty sure that it was just a little padding of the calorie count done by the bottler, but I wasn't certain.

Dullard, I didn't know they were allowed a 20% leeway one way or another! That's a lot.
 

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Originally posted by: UberDave
because 0 = low and more appealing to weight watchers

Yeh, but wouldn't you think that NO calories looks better than LOW calories?

 

Evadman

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Feb 18, 2001
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How is that diet mountain dew? does it taste decent? or close to regular? I am on a hunt for some good low cal pop.
 

vi edit

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Originally posted by: Evadman
How is that diet mountain dew? does it taste decent? or close to regular? I am on a hunt for some good low cal pop.

It's uh, flat tasting. Doesn't have the "zip" that normal dew does, and has an icky aftertaste to me. Lots of diet drinks have a bit of an aftertaste to them that I attribute to the artificial sweetner.

 

dullard

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Dullard, I didn't know they were allowed a 20% leeway one way or another! That's a lot.

I guess to be extra clear, that was an old leeway from many years ago. It might have changed - but they still do have a leeway. I just used 20% since that was the last I had seen. Just don't come crying back if it happens to be 15% or 25%...

 

Jugernot

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Oct 12, 1999
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Same reason they can call foods fat free.... if you eat a whole box of something that is fat free, you could have just eaten 4-5 grams of fat. If it under a certain limit they can call it fat free. MARKETING!!
 

spanky

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Jun 19, 2001
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the soda itself has no calories... but if u consume the can as well... there's ur calories.

j/k. i dunno actually.