When walking down the aisles of the supermarket, what entices you to buy certain products over others? In most cases you can’t smell the product… or see through the packet… so usually you’re influenced by the BIG BOLD LABELS saying “I’M HIGH IN PROTEIN! PICK ME!” *drops into basket without checking the macros or ingredients*
The good news is that food manufacturers in Australia (and most other countries) aren’t allowed to make false claims when it comes to product labelling. In fact, before these packages are printed and advertised, their claims need to meet a certain criteria and be approved by FSANZ (Food Standards Australia and New Zealand). This is the governing body which regulates food sales in these countries and dictates which ingredients manufactures can include in their products, and the claims they’re legally allowed to make about them.
Subjectively, different people will have different opinions (including ourselves) as to what constitutes a food being a “good source” of protein. For example, we personally consider “good sources” of protein to meet a few criteria:
-Be a complete, HBV source of protein and contain all nine essential amino acids
-Contain a minimum of 2 grams of leucine
-The protein component of the food source contributes more to total calorie intake per serving than grams of carbohydrates and/or fat
Now while this is our subjective opinion and interpretation of “good sources” of protein, FSANZ actually has a legal objective criteria. Within this, it may come to many people’s surprise that manufactures are allowed to advertise that their products are a “good source” of protein if the product contains at least 5 grams of protein per serving! Hence, this is why all five of the above products can legally be labelled and advertised as good sources of protein… despite having vastly different macronutrient profiles and energy density per serving.
Let us know, what is your opinion on this? Can you think of any other “protein pretenders”?