Question:
I was surprised to find a packet of fish curry for $10 that stated on the packet it served two, as it was such a small amount of food. Who decides the metric for serving size? Is there a standard across the board for this?
Answer:
Fast food serving sizes have grown steadily in recent years, but there are many cases of packaged foods bought at supermarkets with serving sizes that seem too small. If these two extremes teach us anything, it’s that serving sizes are confusing.
There is no defined serving size in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the code). This code sets legal requirements for the labelling, composition, safety, handling and primary production and processing of food in Australia and New Zealand. And because there are no defined serving sizes, there are no regulations on the serving sizes used on nutrition information panels. That means the manufacturer can decide what constitutes one or two servings with products like fish curry.
The only guidance that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (the inter-governmental body responsible for the code) provides to food businesses is that serving sizes should reflect a realistic portion that a person would typically eat at one sitting. The manufacturer may consider its fish curry constitutes a serving only when accompanied by rice or naan to bulk out the meal.
In its 2015 report Eating and Activity Guidelines for New Zealand Adults, the Ministry of Health advises adults to eat “some legumes, nuts, seeds, fish and other seafood, eggs, poultry and/or red meat with the fat removed” daily. Examples of a standard serving are ¾ cup cooked dried beans, split peas, lentils; 30g nuts or seeds (small handful); one egg (50g); two drumsticks or one chicken leg; two slices cooked meat (approximately 100g); ¾ cup mince or casserole; and one medium fillet of cooked fish, weighing around 100g.
So the ministry considers 100g of fish constitutes a serving. The product you bought contained 300g of fish curry as two servings, or about 150g of fish curry per serving. Without knowing exactly how much of the product was sauce as opposed to fish pieces, it appears the manufacturer has followed fairly typical guides for a single serving of fish.
However, that does not mean a 150g serving of fish curry would be enough for everyone. Each person has unique energy requirements based on their genetics, metabolism, physical and mental health, physical activity levels and how much food they have already eaten that day.
Young children have a powerful connection to their hunger and fullness cues. No matter how much you despise food waste, if your toddler is not hungry, they will not eat dinner. For generations, we have been taught to ignore our fullness and eat that dinner whether we were full or not (sometimes with appeals to think of the starving children in Africa).
However, we are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of learning to trust those hunger and fullness cues rather than under or overeating. Food eaten when we’re not hungry is still wasted, whether it’s in your belly or the rubbish bin.
So, rather than relying on serving sizes that manufacturers arbitrarily select for their food packaging, connect with your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Eat slowly, and even stop halfway through the meal or snack, and check in purposefully with your hunger so you notice when your hunger disappears and fullness emerges.
In that way, you can stop eating when you are comfortably full, rather than eating an amount selected by a manufacturer or a dinner host, as clearly, you are the expert on your hunger levels.
