If a rounding error on a can of pop is going to affect your diet, you seriously need to:

a) get on a stricter diet
b) drink fewer than 20 farking cans of pop a day

Thanks, Consumerist, for reinforcing our perception that there is literally nothing so inane that you can't blow it out of all proportion.

Americans can't handle fractions.

OK. My 12oz soda has 35mg sodium in 8oz, as per the label.
Option 1) only drink 2/3 of the soda
Option 2) do math: 35+17.5= 52.5mg sodium if I drink the whole can. But what do I round to?
This stuff keeps me awake at night.

So, the FDA regulates rounding because marketers are unethical pathological lying sacks of shiat who'd describe 198 calories as "a little over 100" if they could. They don't in nutritional info, though, because they're forced to comply with a law that has some wiggle room, such as 1.2 could be rounded to 1. Just like in real math. Zounds.

When judging whether a story on the Internet is genuinely worthy of outrage (signal) or just noise, I'd put this one is firmly in the "noise" camp.

Now wait just a minute here... are you telling me that food products aren't meticulously engineered so that the calorie count ends exactly in a 5 or 0?

IIRC this rounding rule also allows "zero trans fat" products to contain up to 0.5g per serving.

Rounding error, significant digits, and manufacturing fluctuation.

TheAlgebraist: Thanks, Consumerist, for reinforcing our perception that there is literally nothing so inane that you can't blow it out of all proportion.

They didn't blow anything out of proportion. They answered their reader's questions in an informative manner.

/not a consumerist reader

I'll have the triple big bacon classic with extra bacon and sause, large fries, and a diet Dr. Pepper.

/seriously, what's wrong with people?

Russ1642: I'll have the triple big bacon classic with extra bacon and sause, large fries, and a diet Dr. Pepper.

/seriously, what's wrong with people?

Diet soda is not just for people on a diet.

/Whatever makes you feel better about yourself

Diet soda is as worse, if not worse than regular soda.

If i'm going to have a coke, there's going to be rum in it.

Only the farking consumerist would get pissy about 1.5mg of farking sodium.

here is a hint: If you need to watch your diet THAT farking closely, DO NOT DRINK SODA, DIET OR NOT.

Only the mathsally challenged couldn't have figured this out themselves. Should be consumer reports for dummies.

Russ1642: I'll have the triple big bacon classic with extra bacon and sause, large fries, and a diet Dr. Pepper.

I for one do this because sugar really messes with my metabolism whereas complex carbs,, fat and protein do not.

//just so you know

My Coke Zero in the UK was actually 0.5 calories (kcal) per serving according to the label. I was surprised that they required manufacturers to use that level of precision.

I guess you could deal with the rounding issues by requiring more precision once you get below some point. For calories, you could require 0.5 calorie precision once you get below 25 calories and 2mg precision once you get below 100mg of sodium.

OTOH, you could just eat healthy, control your portion sizes, exercise at least twice a week and not be totally OCD regarding the labels.

This is exactly why I drink beer instead!

TheAlgebraist: If a rounding error on a can of pop is going to affect your diet, you seriously need to:

a) get on a stricter diet
b) drink fewer than 20 farking cans of pop a day

Thanks, Consumerist, for reinforcing our perception that there is literally nothing so inane that you can't blow it out of all proportion.

Wow. So much fail at common math. The article was clearly in regards to a question why similar amounts had different values.

Not sure why you feel so victimized by a little knowledge. You sound like a Neo-con.

Ivo Shandor: IIRC this rounding rule also allows "zero trans fat" products to contain up to 0.5g per serving.

That forced a lot of producers to change what a serving size is.

wildcardjack: Ivo Shandor: IIRC this rounding rule also allows "zero trans fat" products to contain up to 0.5g per serving.

That forced a lot of producers to change what a serving size is.

The serving size thing pisses me off.

I decided to cut a bit of sugar out of my diet, so I switched from Honey Nut Cheerios to regular. I checked the back of the boxes to see how many Calories I saved, and it turned out they they were the same. I scratched my head until I noticed that they just reduced the serving size of the Honey Nut Cheerios. Serving size for Honey Nut is 3/4 cup, regular is a full cup.

wildcardjack: That forced a lot of producers to change what a serving size is.

If they claim that a serving is anything other than "the whole goddamn bag", they are lying.

OMG, the corn sugar/HFCS commercials here are driving me insane. I don't what the hell is going on but it's like blanket bombing or something. They play the commercials at least three times an hour on all our stations. This is very recent, starting within the last three weeks.

Artcurus: OMG, the corn sugar/HFCS commercials here are driving me insane. I don't what the hell is going on but it's like blanket bombing or something. They play the commercials at least three times an hour on all our stations. This is very recent, starting within the last three weeks.

Probably a last hurrah before the ads have to be pulled entirely. Just about three weeks ago the FDA ruled against the CRA and said that corn syrup cannot be called corn sugar. The two main points were:
1. Sugar is a crystalline solid, so a syrup is not sugar.
2. Dextrose is already known as corn sugar

The first point is bullshiat, since they still allow invert sugar and other liquid forms of sucrose to be called sugar. Also bullshiat because dextrose syrup is still corn sugar.

The second point is somewhat legitimate. Some people are fructose intolerant (kind of like lactose intolerant people) and have come to associate foods labeled "corn sugar" as being fructose free.

/"high fructose" originally just meant higher than 0%
//I bet the guy who named it is kicking himself now

I want the FDA to force the companies that make nonstick spray to be reasonable about the serving sizes, or at least go out enough decimal places to allow us to calculate. I get that there's "0" calories in a spray that lasts 1/16th of a second, I want to know how what's there when I spray a baking sheet over 3-4 seconds.

so how many calories are really in coke zero

"Welcome to the world of FDA rounding rules. According to those rules, food products in this sodium range must be rounded to the nearest 5mg increment for sodium"

Why?

Welfare Xmas: Only the mathsally challenged couldn't have figured this out themselves. Should be consumer reports for dummies.

Or on Fark, we call that "The Consumerist".

Seriously, most of what that site posts is illegitimate BAWWing by people who expect the world to have rounded corners and padded floors. It's snowflakes complaining they didn't follow the rules. "I sent my rebate in late, and now the company won't honor it, and the place I bought the item from won't accept the return because I don't have the receipt or the box and I bought it 6 months ago" and "they won't honor the warranty on the phone I dropped" and "I burnt myself on the pot after I took it off the stove. Why would it still be hot when I turned the burner off?"

The Consumerist is a blog with content created by people who are the reason for warning labels such as "do not stop chainsaw with genitals."

The only thing The Consumerist ever got right was receipt checking, and they didn't even reference the Uniform Commercial Code and Common Law which state that once payment is accepted on an item by the seller or his agent, it's yours. Probably because it'd have made the 3 page rant on why companies shouldn't do it shorter than this post.