ChatterBank0 min ago
Soda Water
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On the label it says no calories. Why then can you buy reduced calorie soda water. Does this put it in a minus calorie content?
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Then you'd need to know the brand to work out where the calories are coming from.
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Some have a 'hint' of lemon or lime, they may well have some sweeteners.
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Some have a 'hint' of lemon or lime, they may well have some sweeteners.
With all due respect, I can find a single example of low calorie soda water marketed in the UK. It just doesn't make sense because as others have said, water contains no calories anyway. UK soda water contains water, sodium bicarbonate and a minute quantity of salt.
I think you may have seen a low-calorie flavoured soda water where lime juice or some other juice concentrate is added that would add calories to the water. Most juices contain around 10% sugar and typically, this would give the water/juice mix about 2 calories per 100ml of finished product.
The low calorie declaration is really because they are keen to show that they offset the natural bitterness of the juice by adding artificial sweeteners ( which have no calories in this case) rather than adding sugar.
For our US friends who may be reading this, the question is about club soda rather than seltzer water.
I think you may have seen a low-calorie flavoured soda water where lime juice or some other juice concentrate is added that would add calories to the water. Most juices contain around 10% sugar and typically, this would give the water/juice mix about 2 calories per 100ml of finished product.
The low calorie declaration is really because they are keen to show that they offset the natural bitterness of the juice by adding artificial sweeteners ( which have no calories in this case) rather than adding sugar.
For our US friends who may be reading this, the question is about club soda rather than seltzer water.
Hmm, one thing that occurs to me is that the added juice may have been in very small print on the label. The liquid would still look perfectly clear for the same reason that the 2% of lemon juice in most standard UK lemonade, doesn't alter the clearness if the finished product. Yet even 1% juice would add calories.
Food regulations don't permit a very long shelf life for soda water and other mixers these days so old stock doesn't really exist. Besides the plastic gauge they use, doesn't allow the retention of the carbon dioxide for very long. Yes, glass bottled soda water does exist, but it's usually Schweppes or the like and is a pub sized 200ml bottle. They've never marketed a low calorie version for the reasons I said earlier.
If it does have juice added, I suspect the FSA would be very interested in the label. The key here is the declared calorie content per 100ml, a legal requirement.
I wonder if the label declares "< 1 calorie" on the label nutritional data table yet has zero calories elsewhere on the label. That would be a different issue but I'm getting into food regulation technicalities here .
Food regulations don't permit a very long shelf life for soda water and other mixers these days so old stock doesn't really exist. Besides the plastic gauge they use, doesn't allow the retention of the carbon dioxide for very long. Yes, glass bottled soda water does exist, but it's usually Schweppes or the like and is a pub sized 200ml bottle. They've never marketed a low calorie version for the reasons I said earlier.
If it does have juice added, I suspect the FSA would be very interested in the label. The key here is the declared calorie content per 100ml, a legal requirement.
I wonder if the label declares "< 1 calorie" on the label nutritional data table yet has zero calories elsewhere on the label. That would be a different issue but I'm getting into food regulation technicalities here .
My last comment (probably). You can buy 1 litre bottles of branded soda water, but what a markup for what appears to be the same product, according to analysis. Know the same applies to almost all products own shop branded versus manufacturer branded, yet I am led to believe that lots of tinned food items are manufactured in same factory with just different labels.
You're absolutely right Tony. With a few exceptions, most canned and bottled food and drink is made in the same factory on the same production lines on a rota basis. They are permitted to slightly skew the declared nutritional data via EU regulations to allow for slight variations in ingredient batches which is why two products coming out of the same factory, from the same production line and sold by different supermarkets can be slightly different in calories, fat, protein etc. In reality, it just looks to the consumer that the supermarket own brand stuff is not made by the major players.
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