Decoding Serving Sizes: What You Need to Know

What serving sizes are based on, how they help you, and how they don't.

Hello, readers! In this week’s edit, I’m sharing Part 2 of my label reading series - Decoding Serving Sizes. This includes what serving sizes are based on, how they’re helpful as a tool when selecting products, and why they’re not an indication of how much you should eat. This series is the foundation of understanding food labels on a deeper level, ultimately helping you assess and select products at the grocery store. In case you missed it, you can read Part 1 of my label reading series on Percent Daily Value and the “2000-Calorie Diet” here.

Since we have American and Canadian friends here, I’ve included examples and information from both labels. But unless otherwise noted, assume the content below applies to both Canada and the U.S.

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Serving sizes: the basics

Serving size is a reference amount of food listed at the top of the nutrition facts table. This section of the food label is important because the nutrients listed below are calculated based on this specific serving size. Serving sizes have evolved over the years to become more user-friendly by including common measurements and more accurately representing a “typical” amount of food consumed in a sitting (more on this later). Food labels currently require a common measure (e.g., tbsp, cup) followed by a metric unit that represents the volume (fluid) or weight (solids) of the specified portion of food. For example, the serving size in the Canadian label below is 6 crackers, and the weight of 6 crackers is 20g. If common measures aren’t applicable, you may find some serving sizes that reference a specific number of pieces or a fraction of the food item, for example, 4 crackers or 2 slices of pizza.

Serving sizes are meant to reflect TYPICAL consumer intake, which is NOT the same as INDIVIDUAL consumer intake.