Deciphering Fat Content On Nutrition Labels

[Mossy]

I've searched the forums for an answer, but have not found anything on this. I'm finding that the breakdown of fat types within a nutrition label don't equal the total fat listed on that label. For instance, I have a label on a cookie that reads:

Total Fat: 8g

Saturated Fat: 3.5 g
Trans Fat: 0 g.
​

Poly and mono fats are not listed. I'm assuming that the remaining 4.5 grams of fat for this cookie consists of those fats. This seems like a logical guess, and maybe due to the common health perspective of saturated and trans fats, those are the only ones that legally need to be listed.

Any insights?

 

[2thecloudsabove]

Haha.. I love when all the packaged food disclose just saturated fat under total fats, implying thats the "bad fat". Like saying, from the amount of fat, "only x grs is saturated"... and you remain wondering "wtf!! how much from the leftover is mono and how much is pufa?"

 

[Mossy]

...how much from the leftover is mono and how much is pufa?"

Yep, a bit frustrating, no doubt. It seems that my guess is correct -- they're not required to note it and that we can assume the remaining is a mix of anything but saturated or trans.

 

[Queequeg]

sneaky ******** aren't they
you could try chronometer if you really want to know about something. maybe there is an app that lets you scan the item and it gives you the info

 

[Mossy]

sneaky ******** aren't they
you could try chronometer if you really want to know about something. maybe there is an app that lets you scan the item and it gives you the info

Thanks for the advice. I have the phone app for cronometer, but I don't see a barcode scan option. I see an area on the desktop version, for a bar code, but manually entering the number does nothing.

 

[lvysaur]

You just look at the ingredients.

 

[Mossy]

You just look at the ingredients.

Can you elaborate on this?

 

[lvysaur]

Can you elaborate on this?

Just see what oils/fats are first in the ingredient list.

Or just look at the proportion of saturated to total fat. If it's over 50%, it's butter, if it's 50%, it's probably palm oil, etc.

 

[Herbie]

Many labels just say 'vegetable oil' and don't say which one so I just memorised the ratios of Sfa to Mufa and Pufa so I know if its coconut, palm, sunflower, canola, soy, cottonseed etc.

 

[chrismeyers]

Yeah the government requires only saturated and trans fats to be specifically listed in the fat breakout section. But in a way this is fine because I look for products higher in saturated fat proportionally to total fat.

 

[Mossy]

Just see what oils/fats are first in the ingredient list.

Or just look at the proportion of saturated to total fat. If it's over 50%, it's butter, if it's 50%, it's probably palm oil, etc.

Ah, ok -- yeah, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Mossy]

On a side note, I thought I should add that I did notice the barcode scanner within the cronometer app. Earlier I had noted didn't see any.

 

[Dobbler]

Can someone confirm me that butter in labels means actually butter, not some nasty butter / canola oil mix but just real butter made from cream? I have faced this with multiple products, one was melted cheese dip , very good SAFA ratio and website listed only 0,3g PUFA per 100g so i assume that was real butter bcuz otherwise the ratio would be have been more f*cked. Other one that i tried today was dairy fudge named Flecki, from Germany i think. Really high SAFA content according to label, up to 75% which is quite imposible even for dairy, but once again, it says on label BUTTER. Now please tell me this is real but not some margarine or other PUFA butter mix. Sorry for being neurotic.

 

[redsun]

Can someone confirm me that butter in labels means actually butter, not some nasty butter / canola oil mix but just real butter made from cream? I have faced this with multiple products, one was melted cheese dip , very good SAFA ratio and website listed only 0,3g PUFA per 100g so i assume that was real butter bcuz otherwise the ratio would be have been more f*cked. Other one that i tried today was dairy fudge named Flecki, from Germany i think. Really high SAFA content according to label, up to 75% which is quite imposible even for dairy, but once again, it says on label BUTTER. Now please tell me this is real but not some margarine or other PUFA butter mix. Sorry for being neurotic.

The ingredients list should label any other ingredient, so you'll know from that if it has margarine or anything else in it. Ive seen canola oil + butter used for spreading on bread but it just calls it spreadable butter or something like that and youll only know if it has canola oil by reading the ingredients.

 

[Dobbler]

The ingredients list should label any other ingredient, so you'll know from that if it has margarine or anything else in it. Ive seen canola oil + butter used for spreading on bread but it just calls it spreadable butter or something like that and youll only know if it has canola oil by reading the ingredients.

Yes yes, my fear is that they use some cheap butter knockoff and list it as butter while it actually is 50/50 butter and canola oil, but you say they would have to list the canola oil on the product label if it was used even in the butter?

 

[redsun]

Yes yes, my fear is that they use some cheap butter knockoff and list it as butter while it actually is 50/50 butter and canola oil, but you say they would have to list the canola oil on the product label if it was used even in the butter?

Yeh it would be listed in ingredients if it was in it. If its not in the ingredients its not in the product.

 

[MetabolicTrash]

You can never always know because the labeling can be so vague. Usually butter alone means real butter AKA no vegetable spread concoctions.

I usually assume that -- if it shows a higher portion or percentage of SFA to the total fat -- that probably means the remainder is more evenly PUFA and MUFA or more MUFA than PUFA, but probably not the opposite.

Example: Total Fat 20g. Sat Fat. 14g. I would take a guess that it is probably 3 and 3 or probably a bit more MUFA than PUFA. Just look at peanuts and you see the opposite trend -- most of the fat is MUFA/PUFA so what is lowest is SFA, just as the inverse is usually true.

 

[Dobbler]

You can never always know because the labeling can be so vague. Usually butter alone means real butter AKA no vegetable spread concoctions.

I usually assume that -- if it shows a higher portion or percentage of SFA to the total fat -- that probably means the remainder is more evenly PUFA and MUFA or more MUFA than PUFA, but probably not the opposite.

Example: Total Fat 20g. Sat Fat. 14g. I would take a guess that it is probably 3 and 3 or probably a bit more MUFA than PUFA. Just look at peanuts and you see the opposite trend -- most of the fat is MUFA/PUFA so what is lowest is SFA, just as the inverse is usually true.

If it's dairy fat there is no way 20g of dairy fat would have 3g of PUFA, it's imposible, 80g of butter fat has 3g of PUFA

 

[redsun]

You can never always know because the labeling can be so vague. Usually butter alone means real butter AKA no vegetable spread concoctions.

I usually assume that -- if it shows a higher portion or percentage of SFA to the total fat -- that probably means the remainder is more evenly PUFA and MUFA or more MUFA than PUFA, but probably not the opposite.

Example: Total Fat 20g. Sat Fat. 14g. I would take a guess that it is probably 3 and 3 or probably a bit more MUFA than PUFA. Just look at peanuts and you see the opposite trend -- most of the fat is MUFA/PUFA so what is lowest is SFA, just as the inverse is usually true.

Pretty sure by law though they have to list all ingredients especially when concerning oils and fats. If I go and look at my kerrygold butter it says

ingredients: pasteurized cream, salt

 

[MetabolicTrash]

Pretty sure by law though they have to list all ingredients especially when concerning oils and fats. If I go and look at my kerrygold butter it says

ingredients: pasteurized cream, salt

Yeah, I noticed pasteurized cream is the real deal on packaging when it comes to butter.

They have to list all of the ingredients, but the vagueness is the breakdown since they don't have to list PUFA or MUFA. I guess you'd know regardless with the fat breakdown since it would be weird for real butter to not be mostly saturated fat anyways.