Pet Peeve

I don't buy fully prepared microwavable dinners often any more, but every once in a while I will.  There are a couple that are actually quite good, though they do tend to be a bit pricey, especially in this one grocery town.

I bought a chinese dinner the other day that I've found to be quite good.  Having discovered of late that packaging tends to lie, I decided to check this particular item out.  I had looked at the info on the side to see how many servings and how many calories per serving.  It said one cup per serving, 250 calories per serving, package holds 3 servings.  I looked at what was in the bowl and said "NO way that's 3 one cup servings."

Okay, I spoon it into a two cup measure, 'cause I know there is no possibility there are 3 cups there.  Hmmm, 1 1/2 cups.  Let's see, that off by 50%.  Okay, that's by volume, it also lists grams.  Let's check it by weight.  200 gram servings, that should mean 600 grams.  410 grams.  Hey, 33% or 50% less than advertised, I don't care, now I'm pissed.  Maybe if I had weighed the box it came in I would have come out to 600 grams, but I don't EAT the BOX.

At the same time I bought the chinese food, I gave in to my worse half and bought a prepared pannini.  I get home, pop it out, put it in it's sleeve, put it in the microwave, THEN I look at the nutrition info.  Dumb. Now, it's clear that it is meant to be one serving.  You are not going to cut that little thing in half and share it, but, when I look at the box, 2 servings, 250 calories.  Ah, that means that one pannini in the microwave is 500 calories.  Yikes!

Now, that is the one that REALLY pisses me off.  Package some thing that is CLEARLY meant to be a single serving, but because the nutrition info makes it clear that you're going to gain 10 pounds if you consume it as one serving, list it as 2.5 servings or 2 servings or what ever number of servings will make it look like a good deal calorie wise.  The average consumer is going to flip it over, see the 250 calories and not think twice about it.  They end up eating 500 or maybe 750 calories and never know it.

Soft Drinks are especially bad about this, but as the pannini above shows, foods do it too.  One of my favorite foods does it with their packaged foods, when ever the calorie count gets too high, what is obviously one serving suddenly becomes 2 servings.  Some of their food is one serving, but they are all low calorie, the second the calorie count gets a little high, it becomes 2 servings.  I will buy their one serving packaging, won't touch the other.

I really hate that.  I stopped buying bottled drinks a long time ago because of this little trick.  You want me to buy it, it's clearly one serving, label it that way.  I usually catch it on packaged food as well, but every once in a while one slips by.  I didn't expect the one with the chinese food where they just plain don't give you any where near what they say.  That's fraud.  I really like that food and if they had been any where near correct I would continue to buy it.  I will NEVER buy it again, I'm sorry packaging 1/3 to 1/2 less food than labeled is just too much.

Any way, that's my food pet peeve.