High-street food brands ‘breaching regulations’ on nutrition labelling
We carried out tests on a range of goods and found some startling results
SUPERMARKET food brands could be breaking the law by under-valuing carbohydrates on their packaging, a Sun investigation has found.
Tests carried out at a specialist laboratory found fluctuations in the quantity of calories, carbohydrates and sugars in a string of household foods.
The shocking results show brands Quorn and Weight Watchers could either be in breach of regulations or failing to accurately label their packaging.
Experts and MPs have called for tighter controls on food companies and for authorities to launch a probe following our investigation.
The tests - carried out a public health testing laboratory - show shoppers are being misled by the nutritional labels on foods.
Professor Tim Spector, of King's College London and author of The Diet Myth, said of calorie-counting diets: "It's one big trick and you've exposed one bit of it.
"These things are not at all accurate and it isn't be chance they tend to be, on average, on the lower side than the higher side.
"Who's checking these things? Nobody because we have this voluntary agreement with food manufacturers. Everything's stacked against the consumer who is trying to maintain their weight."
Tests showed Quorn sausages would have been in breach of the law with carbohydrates almost 40 per cent higher than its food label.
They showed the vegetarian meat had 14.8g of carbohydrates per 100g, of which 1.2g was sugars, instead of the labelled 10.6g with 1.5g of sugars.
And in a tested 500g pack of Kellogg's Special K Red Berries sugars were up 8.2 per cent while carbs leaped 6.6 per cent to 66.1g per 100g - an extra 20g per pack though within the legal limits.
Based on Kellogg's own serving portions this equates to an extra bowl of carbs per 500g pack.
Two Weight Watchers ready meal products - which boast their nutritional value on the front of their packages - showed large rises in calories, carbs and sugars.
Tests on a Spicy Jerk Chicken and Rice meal found calories up 10 per cent while carbs had a leap of 17.3 per cent - just under the regulation's 20 per cent threshold.
And an Aromatic Chicken Tikka meal showed calories up 5 per cent and carbohydrates 11 per cent higher than the packaging.
Both products had large percentage rises in sugar content - up 52.6 per cent and 44.4 per cent from a reported 1.9g and 1.8g per 100g.
Other products which showed rises include a Waitrose Charlie Bigham's ready meal which had a 128 per cent jump in sugar to 1.6g per 100g.
Carbohydrates in the £8 Beef Stroganoff dish were also up 9.2 per cent to 14.2g in the tests carried out at one of the UK's few remaining public health laboratories in Lancashire.
We also tested Muller fruit corner yoghurts which showed they were able to accurately report their nutritional values.
Leading health experts have called for more testing of nutritional value in food and tighter controls on companies following our probe.
Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said: "There is so much misrepresentation in food packaging and this needs further investigation.
"People ought to have the information they need on packaging at the starting point to make informed choices. These are quite wide tolerance levels anyway. Packaging is just quite misleading in general."
Professor Graham MacGregor, a cardiovascular medicine expert of Queen Mary University in London, said: "What your results are suggesting is there may be a tendency to under-report what's in the food in some products and I think that's deeply worrying.
"Firstly it's misinforming the public about what's in the foods they're eating which is obviously wrong.
"And if it's above certain levels or below it's actually reportable under EU law."
Asked about the Weight Watchers ready meal results, Professor MacGregor replied: "It's deeply worrying if it's across the board for Weight Watchers then that is serious because clearly you'd expect Weight Watchers to get the calorie and sugar levels correct because that's what they're claiming is their main forte.
"It needs further investigation but it is deeply worrying."
Professor Spector added: "Our twin studies have shown if you give the same diet to two different people they will respond differently - diet and calories don't have averages and need to be looked at on a much more individual basis.
"In the future everyone will probably be tested and personalised nutrition will replace this nonsense on the label.
"I am leading a new study called Predict to see which foods, ignoring calories, are right for your body based on your gut microbes.
"There should be more checks but the government doesn't care as long as food is cheap. And for diet products there is no excuse."
Food nutritional labelling is governed by EU regulation and enforced by Trading Standards officers.
The mandatory rules state that for carbohydrates and sugars products have to be within two grammes under 10g per 100g, within 20 per cent from 10g to 40g and within 8g thereafter.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “The public have a right to know what’s in the food they’re eating and there are clear rules on how products should be labelled.
"Trading Standards have the power to take action against anyone breaking the rules.”
A Quorn spokeswoman said: "We are surprised by the reported findings as we regularly test our products using an independent lab to ensure our products reflect the nutritional labelling on pack, and this data does not match that of the independent lab.
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"The EU levels have always been set at 20 per cent variance and this is a figure Quorn complies with across the entire range."
Trading Standards officers thanked The Sun for bringing the matter to their attention and have vowed to investigate further.
A Weight Watchers spokeswoman said their variations were "within legal tolerances" while Bigham's and Kellogg's had failed to respond at the time of publication.