11

I've been looking into nutritional composition of beverages and I've found something weird: sometimes, when the same product is served in a different container, the nutritional contents on on the packaging changes even though it's supposed to be the same beverage. And yes, I am accounting for serving size. For example, from the Dutch website of my local grocery store:

My assumption was always that in the factories that produce and bottle these beverages, they make these in giant vats of thousands of liters and then assign part to the .15 liter containers and part to the 1.5 liter containers. If this is the case, then why do these contain such massively different nutritional value differences?

Nzall
  • 1,583
  • 1
  • 16
  • 28

2 Answers2

14

I can only guess at it needs to be a different recipe for the can compared to the bottle.

The ingredients list, though not hugely helpful, lists tea-extract at 0.3% on one pack & 0.32% on the other. If they've changed that, they could change anything else & not have to report it in ingredients, only in nutritional value.

In fact, putting it through Google Translate, one claims stevia & fructose, the other just sugar. Completely different recipes, regular & 'low-cal'.

Can

Carbonated water, sugar, fructose, tea extract(0.3%), food acids (citric acid, malic acid), acidity regulator (trisodium citrate), lemon juice from concentrated juice (0.1%), aroma, antioxidant (ascorbic acid), sweetener (steviol glycosides ).

Bottle

Carbonated water, sugar, tea extract (0.32%), food acid (citric acid), acidity regulator (trisodium citrate), lemon juice from concentrated juice (0.1%), flavourings, preservative (potassium sorbate), antioxidant (ascorbic acid).

Tetsujin
  • 29,732
  • 4
  • 74
  • 116
  • 2
    Not knowing the situation where the OP is, I wonder if there's a sugar tax on single serving containers but not on big bottles,or some of political thing like that – Chris H Aug 03 '21 at 16:33
  • 5
    Possibly - the result of the sugar tax on Lucozade just made me laugh out loud [& stop buying it]. It's now an energy drink with less energy than regular Coke. "Diet Lucozade' - work that one out ;)) – Tetsujin Aug 03 '21 at 16:35
  • 1
    As someone who mainly buys soft drinks when I want a sugar boost, I go straight to juice instead these days. Otherwise it's a matter of hunting for something worth having – Chris H Aug 03 '21 at 16:38
  • 1
    I used to work a really high impact job, so I'd keep a gallon of "Lookey" in the car at all times. Fruit juice I always considered too acidic for the quick sugar hit. [Perhaps bizarrely, other than that I don't put sugar in or on anything, or eat anything vaguely 'sweet', so now i no longer do that job my intake is back down near nil. Of course, not nil, but nothing 'added'.] – Tetsujin Aug 03 '21 at 16:44
  • 1
    Note that the "Nutri-score" shown on the OP's links differs too. The small bottle is "D" and the large bottle is "E". More support for it not being the same formula. – Ross Presser Aug 03 '21 at 18:01
  • 5
    Also possible that one product was entered earlier and not updated, the other one was entered later after a recipe change. – user3067860 Aug 03 '21 at 19:37
  • @user3067860 This looks like the best answer - Albert Heijn lists the same ingredients and formula of the Delhaize mini-can (0.1L) for the 1.5L bottle in their website – Juliana Karasawa Souza Aug 04 '21 at 08:07
  • 1
    Would the recipes differ to accommodate the container? Aluminum versus plastic. – MonkeyZeus Aug 04 '21 at 13:07
  • 1
    @MonkeyZeus I don't think so, there are enough other workarounds--like how soda cans have really thin plastic liners, so they are functionally plastic bottles on the inside. – user3067860 Aug 04 '21 at 18:09
  • @user3067860 How have I gone my whole life without knowing this?!?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EagzNomxTYg – MonkeyZeus Aug 04 '21 at 18:21
  • 1
    @MonkeyZeus https://xkcd.com/1053/ :) -- Related to this actual answer, it also occurs to me that this could just be really bad data entry, for example if the person tasked with entering the nutritional information into the store website accidentally copied from a diet/low sugar flavor instead of from the original flavor. – user3067860 Aug 04 '21 at 18:31
1

Curious! It could be a different recipe, like Tetsujin's answer suggests. Or it could be the same recipe, but due to the smaller serving size some ingredients may fall below the reporting threshold.

Consider from https://www.tictac.com/us/en/faq/:

Tic Tac® mints do contain sugar as listed in the ingredient statement. However, since the amount of sugar per serving (1 mint) is less than 0.5 grams, FDA labeling requirements permit the Nutrition Facts to state that there are 0 grams of sugar per serving.

(They are actually 90% sugar.)

Another explanation could be that perhaps a single recipe is used for all products, but the recipe has changed at some point. The store may have different amounts of stock of the products, and may end up selling one bottle with the old recipe and one with the new recipe.

I have asked the manufacturer through their contact form to see if they want to jump in and give us an authoritative answer. I'll update this answer if they get back.

Daniel Darabos
  • 221
  • 1
  • 5
  • 1
    Daniel, if you feel comfortable doing so, feel free to contact Lipton, but keep in mind that Delhaize is the source of the nutritional values I gave above and as such it might be their info that's out of date. – Nzall Aug 06 '21 at 11:43
  • Done, I've asked them on their contact form. But you're right, it could totally be that one listing is older than the other! It could even be that one product is older! I'll add it to the answer. – Daniel Darabos Aug 06 '21 at 11:59