# Pickles have no calories?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles-have-no-calories/301279>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 26, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles-have-no-calories/301279 "2005-04-26T23:56:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles-have-no-calories/301279/21 "2011-03-09T19:16:23Z")

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- waiting for a [gherkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gherkin)/[Gurkhan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha) pun \*

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles-have-no-calories/301279/22 "2011-03-11T01:49:42Z")

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> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> How’s your jar sliced? I buy pickle halves, and the label says those are 5 calories a piece. They do allow rounding on nutrition labels, so if you’ve got something smaller, it might round down to 0.

This is the correct answer.

On labels, calories for the ‘serving size’ are rounded to the nearest 5 calories. So if that’s 2 calories, they round down to zero.

Also note the ‘serving size’ included there. Food makers can play games there, too. Specify a smaller ‘serving size’ than people actually eat, and you can reduce the calories, and make the food look less fattening. For a pickle spear, people normally eat one of them (and them maybe another …), so it would be reasonable to call that one serving. But sometimes makers may list a serving as 1 ounce, even if the typical pickle spear is 1.5 ounces. That lets them list a lower calorie count on the label. It used to be common to see a single 12-ounce can of soda pop with the label saying that the serving size was 8 ounces – thus cutting their calorie count by one-third. Or look at the listed serving size on breakfast cereal – often that is less than half of a normal bowl.

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