Unexpected Nutritional Label Variances from Water Addition: Root Cause Analysis
Hi all;
Wishing good day from Canada to all. I love this forum for it's scholarly opinions on different food safety topics that help many solving food related puzzles in the industry. I am working in the food industry for more than five years; now working in a company that makes Asian noodles. Lately our company developed two new products with same ingredients (wheat flour, water and mixed sauces) except one product has 10% more water than the other. Now it appeared that the sample with 10% additional water shows more carbohydrate, fat and sodium values in the NFT than the other sample. I highly appreciate if any veteran from the forum can answer the root cause of this difference that apparently does not make sense. The company who analyzed the sample claimed no mistake on their part.
Best Regards for everyone!
Iqbal
Serving size is the same?
What sample quantity was submitted for the analysis to determine the nutritional data? If the formula is the same, I would have to presume minor differences in the ingredients compounded by small sample sizes, resulted in skewed numbers -- their test could be entirely accurate, but the sample submitted was not representative.
This kind of problem could be resolved by submitting a compound sample, made up of multiple batches made on different dates etc. This ought to eliminate the minor differences in ingredients and technique from one batch to the next by averaging them out.
Thank you so much for your response. Serving size was same for the 2 products; however, product sizes were different. But ingredients were identical except one product has 10% more water in the composition. The possibilities you mentioned are not unlikely. I will follow up possible deviations and corrections as per your comments. My boss is curious to know how adding small amount of water can skew the nutrition values when all ingredients are same.
Thank you!
How much different are the results? How much variation is there in the raw materials and were raw materials taken from same lot / container, etc?
I was going to say something very similar to GM. Sample submitted may not be representative or the lab tested an unrepresentative portion from the sample. provided. It might not be that nayone did anything wrong, it could be just samping error / statistics.
Multiple batches combined into a composite and / or several tests of the same composite may help.
Repeat your sampling altogether using composite samples for both products, ideally sampled from multiple batches to ensure you've good an accurate representation of your product
Which lab did you use (out of sheer curiosity)