Are the calorie counts on packaged foods deceiving you?

Local prosecutors in California recently filed a lawsuit against Kroger (which also owns the Ralphs and Food 4 Less supermarket chains) for allegedly mislabeling the number of calories on store-name bread. The Kroger Carbmaster line of bread listed just 30 calories per slice, when the bread was actually 50 calories or more per slice, according to prosecutors. And this kind of problem is much more common than you might think.

The Ventura and Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s offices allege that the calculation of calories advertised on Carbmaster from 2018 to 2022 included an undercount of actual calories. And while prosecutors say some of the packaging was eventually corrected, there were other places where calories were listed incorrectly, such as supermarket websites, according to a recent one. Press release.

The news, first reported by Los Angeles Times, comes after dozens of lawsuits have been filed in recent years over inaccurate calorie labels. Part of the problem, according to the LA Times, is that the FDA allows food companies to choose from a variety of methods to count calories, some of which aren’t necessarily very accurate.

The LA Times spoke with an expert at Dartmouth College School of Medicine, Susan B. Roberts, who has been researching calorie labeling for years.

“It’s almost impossible to control all of that,” Roberts told the Times. “To a large extent, we depend on the honesty of food companies.”

And it’s not just packaged foods. A 2020 study found that calorie counts at fast food restaurants were often wrong. The study determined that 15% of restaurant items had actual calorie counts 20% more (or above) than what was listed on the menu. Incredibly, some of the items had more than twice as much sodium as listed.

Both Kroger and the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to emailed questions Wednesday. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back. But in the meantime, maybe take some of the calorie counts you read every day with just a pinch of salt — because that food may literally have more salt than it says on the package.