Campaign for Real Salad: The product labelling swindle

I know people have been banging on about transparency in nutritional labelling for ages, but it is a good point that needs driving home. The way that pre-packaged salads are labelled is particularly baffling.

Tesco, for example, have decided, in their ultimate wisdom, to give the following nutritional information on
their website:

Tuna Layered Salad Bowl 440g- by 100g or by half a pack (220g). Now to me, the idea of a bowl would be that it is a convenient serving for my lunch. Especially since once opened, the advice is to consume within 24 hours.

Eating this whole pack would set you back 26.4g of fat. For that you could treat yourself to 30 delicious grams of butter and still have change.

Prawn Pasta 465g – labelled ‘Deli Salad’ on the packaging. Tesco are happy to give you the nutritional advice for this delicious product by the 100g, or, wait for it… By the tablespoon. Yes, per 55g. Which of course doesn’t divide into 465g. But naturally, all of this information is further down the page, where you would have to scroll down to see it. The nice, brightly coloured nutritional info at the top is just ‘per serving’ – would you have guessed they meant per tablespoon?

So thank goodness for the Complete Meaty Ham Salad. Labelled by 100g and (shock horror) per pack (145g). And it comes with its own little fork and everything. Not sure why it needs to contain a quarter of your daily salt intake, but I guess that’s another post.

If you think this is annoying and unnecessary, please sign the Campaign For Real Salad petition.