I was just idly reading the facts on a packaged Indian vegetable curry thing I’m going to have for lunch. The first ingredients are beans, carrots, peas, cauliflower, and potatoes and it also contains tomatoes in the sauce. However, when I look at the nutritional information it say O% for both Vitamin A and Vitamin C. What gives? I was under the impression that the above vegetables contained good amounts of both those vitamins.
I’ve noticed similar surprising lacks from time to time on other foods. The only thing I can think of is that the company has to print the nutrition facts on its package, but didn’t bother to figure out the levels of all the nutrients. Any other theories?
I hope they haven’t degraded that much. Anyway, the stuff wasn’t processed any more than average frozen veggies. I did notice that it was imported from India. Are the rules for nutrition labels different for imported foods?
They don’t want to measure how much vitamine is destroyed by cooking and canning and storage, and the amount probably varies by lot. They conservatively state there’s none left. They can’t be penalized by the FDA for claiming less vitamins on the label then they actually have in the can. If more then trace amounts of vitamins survive the cooking, I guess you get more than they advertized.