ConAgra's sprayable butter: 0 fat, 0 calories, and 0 truth

[The Straight Story]

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - ConAgra's sprayable butter is not the same thing as nonstick cooking sprays such as Pam, making its nonfat, no-calorie claims contestable in court, a federal judge ruled in a class action.

Lead plaintiff Erin Allen sued ConAgra in March, claiming it uses "unrealistically" small serving sizes to understate the amount of fat and calories in its Parkay Spray.

Conagra advertises the spray as having "0 fat" and "0 calories," though one bottle contains 93 grams of fat and 832 calories, Allen said in her class action.

The Food and Drug Administration allows companies to label products as "fat-free" if they contain less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, and "0 calories" if they have fewer than 5 calories per serving, according to Allen's complaint.

Parkay Spray lists its serving sizes as 0.2 grams, or one spray, for cooking, and 1.0 grams, or five sprays, for topping. This would give an 8-oz, bottle 1,130 one-spray servings and 226 five-spray servings.

The problem, Allen claims, is that consumers do not use such artificially small serving sizes, especially when it comes to butter, so ConAgra's claims are false and misleading.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/09/10/60986.htm
ConAgra which grosses $20 billion in annual sales, sought dismissal, claiming the complaint is pre-empted by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990. It claims it complies with those laws.

[denverbill]

1. I hope Allen wins. The artificially small servings are a joke.

CoffeeMate advertises itself as healthy because it has 0 transfat, even the the 2nd ingredient on it's ingredient list is transfat. It's serving size (1 tsp IIRC) won't even make coffee look slightly brown. You need about 2 tbls to lighten even weak coffee.

[RedCappedBandit]

2. no zero calorie food truly is zero cal

us nutritional labeling is abysmal

[xfundy]

3. They will lie about anything.

It's the way corporations work these days.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. I've always been skeptical of so-called "Zero Calorie" spray butters and margarines.

Granted, I'm something of an addict when it comes to butter and margarine and I apply it most liberally on anything possible. But I don't for a minute believe that the "Zero calorie" spray is actually zero calories. Otherwise, what is it supposed to be? Water?