Foods that are bad for you have long fudged their calorie and fat content by putting the information for an impossibly tiny serving size on the package, instead of the amount that real people actually eat. Sandar thinks that Kraft is trying to pull the same trick with a new Crystal Light line. The packets of drink mix are designed with a 16-ounce water bottle in mind, but one “serving” is half the bottle–and half the packet.

I think this submission falls under the category of misleading and unnecessary product packaging/nutrition info…

I’m occasionally on the lookout for healthy, or at least less-unhealthy, alternatives to soft drinks, so I decided to try Crystal Light pure fitness. It’s a new powder drink from Crystal Light that uses Truvia instead of artificial sweeteners. It comes in boxes with little packets of powder that you add to water. So I got some, tried the grape flavor. Tastes pretty good. Then I checked the nutrition information and initially thought, “Wow, 15 calories. That’s pretty good.” Then I looked closer and saw that whichever marketing or product packaging genius who put this thing together decided to make each of the little packets contain TWO servings.

Yes, maybe it is a minor point of contention. So it contains 30 calories per packet. 70mgs Sodium, 30mgs Potassium and 6gs of carbs per packet. Still pretty healthy compared to a Coke. But really, Kraft? You came to the conclusion that each package contains TWO servings? Even the instructions, hopefully legible in the picture there, say to “Add 1 packet. Shake well.” Why don’t they read “Carefully measure out half a packet” so as to only consume 1 serving? It’s obviously intended to be used as 1 packet per serving, so why not just be honest and upfront about that and provide corresponding nutritional information? Why obfuscate and stupidify it?

I have to assume this decision was engineered by an idiotic bureacratic process or Kraft thinks we’re a bunch of morons.

It’s nice and low-calorie either way, but what would you consider a “serving” of this product?

 

<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/4457253/”>What should be this product’s serving size?</a><span style=”font-size:9px;”><a href=”http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/”>online surveys</a></span><br />

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