fat free muffins in coffee shops

I saw a box of fat free muffins for sale in a supermarket and was surprised
to read that the serving size was half a muffin. I called the company for
clarification and, after talking to their lawyers, they explained to me
that if the amount of fat in the serving size is less than half a gram,
the FDA allows them to round it down to zero and call the product fat
free. So, the notion of something being fat free depends on the serving
size. If the serving size had been a whole muffin, it would not be legal
to call it fat free. This also shows that the serving size does not have
to be related to what one might naively consider to be a normal serving size.

I think that is misleading and I would prefer it if the FDA required companies
to say how much saturated and unsaturated fat there is in 1000 muffins so that
the consumer could have a more accurate idea of fat content of all kinds.
If one consumes 30 servings per day of nominally fat free food, one doesn't
know whether one is consuming 0 grams of fat or 15 grams, and that isn't just
a matter of weight control: some people have to avoid fats to keep their
blood cholesterol down to prevent strokes and heart attacks.

When one buys a nominally fat free muffin in a coffee shop, one naturally
assumes that the serving size is a whole muffin but I don't know if there
are any regulations at all pertaining to calling something fat free when
it is served in a coffee shop or any restaurant. If someone does know about
that, I'd like to know more about it. I also don't know if restaurants are
required to have nutritionists available to answer nutritional questions or
whether they have to file any nutritional information about their menu,
but I doubt it.

In the absence of anyone to ask about it, suppose one wants to have a muffin
tested to determine its fat content, both saturated and unsaturated. What
kind of lab does one take the muffin to and how much should one expect to
have to pay for the analysis?

Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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