Tesco Nutrition Info

I'd consider myself pretty savvy on nutrition, but I was fooled lately by Tesco's nutrition summary that they show on their own-brand foods. I bought a pack of tesco's finest spaghetti carbonara, quickly browsing the nutritional summary before placing it in my basket. Only thing I remember noticing was that it contained approx 750kcal, a little higher than what I normally buy, but its no harm once in a while.

So I was at work today, having just placed it in the microwave when one of my workmate comes up and says something along the lines of: "Those Spaghetti Carbonara's are tasty but lethal". I reply that they're not that bad and he suggests looking at the saturated fat content. Quick glance of the summary and I spot "x" grams, or 94% of your RDA! This info is conveniently placed in a light GREEN box in Tesco's own labelling standard instead of the RED traffic light system that's being deployed by most of the rest of the industry.

Needless to say, I was disgusted to have been caught out like this. I was in Tesco's again this evening and made a special effort to look at their own-brand labels more closely (didn't actually buy anything). It seems that they just have a standard colour scheme, irrespective of the contents of the food. Interestingly, the calories is darker than the rest, so you're (well mine at least) is drawn to this and when you see greens or light blues in the other columns, its easy to assume everything's ok.

After getting caught out today, I kinda said to myself to stay away from Tesco's as I consider this practice quite underhanded. They should have a social responsibility as the biggest food supplier in the UK and one of the biggest in Ireland in some way, put their customers health ahead of profits. As you can see though, my boycott lasted less than 24 hours, mainly down to the fact that they're open 24hrs and convenience rules.