College students across America know the infamous Freshman 15 —a moniker for the 15 pounds they could gain while adjusting to a college lifestyle. Nutrition fact labels can help them avoid the extra weight, however, some campus food has been found to have incorrect labeling.
The Alumni Memorial Union and Brew coffee shops across campus sell “Simply-to-Go” items, pre-made and packaged meals and snacks for students who are too busy to sit down and eat a meal. The line is part of Sodexo, Marquette’s campus food provider.
One of the line’s items is a three berry yogurt parfait. Its nutrition facts say one serving is 3.9 ounces but doesn’t say how many servings are in the container. However, according to the labeling etched into the plastic of each container, each parfait is either six or nine ounces.
The “Simply-to-Go” nutrition fact labels are printed with information from Sodexo’s company-wide database, but the items themselves are prepared on campus by following a recipe.
Sodexo has a disclaimer on its website to explain why the numbers don’t match up.
According to the disclaimer, “The nutrient information displayed for each item is the result of its exact preparation as stated in the recipe. Any deviation from the recipe such as product substitutions or changes to portion yield will render the information, inaccurate.”
Kevin Gilligan, general manager of Sodexo Campus Services, said he asked Gina Villani, the campus clinical dietitian, to review the labels.
“If there is a mistake in the labeling, we will correct them per our company and Food and Drug Administration guidelines,” Gilligan said in an email.
After Villani reviewed the nutrition facts and found they were incorrect, Sodexo promptly fixed the error.
“I feel that for all our products on campus and in all locations, we make every possible attempt to share nutritional data so that the customer can make an informed decision,” Gilligan said.
Although the parfait information was corrected, some of the line’s other items, like the granola and pudding cups, also have nutrition facts that don’t specify the number of servings in each package. This is leaving some students frustrated.
Megan Sitzberger, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, said she stopped eating the granola because she found the nutrition facts to be misleading.
“It’s difficult to know how many calories you’re eating because the number of servings are not clear,” she said.
Katie Orfei, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, said students deserve to know the nutritional content of what they are eating.
Sodexo is hosting a listening session Thursday, Feb. 11 for students to provide feedback about campus dining services to Sodexo representatives.
