Frustrated with Misleading Calorie Label at ASDA: who to contact to correct this?

Grumpy_chap

At least the sausages have some calories.

I was in a (not ASDA) store yesterday and there was a promotional stand for a new brand of "feel good healthy energy drink with added benefits" which proudly declared "Zero Calories, Zero Sugar" amongst other things.
I did ask the stand attendant how a drink with zero calories could be an energy drink given that calories are, by definition, a measure of energy and, if there are zero calories, there must be zero energy so this drink is not going to fuel me to achieve anything.
The stand attendant seemed to simply not understand my query.

Alderbank

If you go to your laboratory and put the contents of the pack into a bomb calorimeter and reduce them to ash you will liberate 860 kilocalories (not calories!)

If you go into your kitchen and grill the sausages some of the fat will run off. The sausages as prepared for consumption will contain about 672 kilocalories.

I don't think that is difficult to understand.  

LightFlare

I probably wouldn’t have bought anything that was on its use by date - I know there’s always a couple of days give and take, but even so…

PHK

cannugec5 said:

rbn said:

cannugec5 said:

Both claim to be the grilled state so the raw product is not being compared.

But the 360g is the uncooked weight. The weight once grilled will be different.

But the calories back and front both refer to grilled weight. 

Nowhere does it refer to uncooked values. 

But the reason for the OPs discrepancy is because they are multiplying the calories per 100g of grilled product by the weight before cooking. Which is obviously going to give the wrong answer. 

boobyd

I'll be more miffed at the main ingredient being water!

MobileSaver

cannugec5 said:

rbn said:

cannugec5 said:

Both claim to be the grilled state so the raw product is not being compared.

But the 360g is the uncooked weight. The weight once grilled will be different.

But the calories back and front both refer to grilled weight. 

Nowhere does it refer to uncooked values.

Do you think that might be because few, if any, customers eat uncooked sausages?

As has been said, the OP is comparing apples with oranges; the 360g pack weight is the uncooked weight and includes amongst other things all the vegetable oil used in the product. During cooking a proportion of those raw ingredients are lost and so will not be consumed by the customer. 

QED the calorie figures are correct for the cooked product as consumed by customers which is all that matters.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

The Food Standards Agency says:

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/nutrition-labelling

The nutrient values must be for the food as sold. Where appropriate the information may relate to the food after preparation-when sufficiently detailed preparation instructions must be given and the information should relate to the food as prepared for consumption.

As they having the cooking instructions it all appears to be correct but as above Environmental Health are the ones to double check with if you wish OP  

Ergates

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

The Food Standards Agency says:

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/nutrition-labelling

The nutrient values must be for the food as sold. Where appropriate the information may relate to the food after preparation-when sufficiently detailed preparation instructions must be given and the information should relate to the food as prepared for consumption.

As they having the cooking instructions it all appears to be correct but as above Environmental Health are the ones to double check with if you wish OP  

There's nothing to check - the OP has made an error in their calculations, that is all.

It would be absurd and misleading to give nutritional values for uncooked food that cannot (safely) be eaten uncooked.

bagand96

There's a contact form here, you can add your photos:

https://asda-stores.custhelp.com/app/ask_asda_store_bought

breaking_free

@bagand96 Thanks for the contact form. 
I'd actually forgotten this thread but now that you've bumped it I might just contact ASDA. I expect they will explain the cooked/uncooked weights/calories like other posters have done, but maybe they'll take another tack - who knows?

Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded.