MANY ENERGY BARS LOSE STEAM IN LAB TESTS

BARBARA MURRAY

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A private laboratory here tested 30 energy bar products for its review of the category, and found that most of them did not live up to claims made on their labels regarding calories, fats, carbohydrates, sugars, proteins, cholesterol and sodium.

Only 12 products passed the review, with undeclared carbohydrates the most common problem.

"In fact, 15 of the 30 products tested exceeded claimed levels of carbohydrates, often by as much as 20 grams, despite claims by some to be 'Low Carb,"' according to a statement issued by ConsumerLab.com here. The company is an independent evaluator of dietary supplements and nutrition products that has been publishing its results on the Web since 1999. It plans to publish buyers' guides next year listing recommended vitamins and supplements, and in 2003 on nutritional products like the bars the company recently tested.

One possible explanation for this discrepancy might be the practice of some manufacturers not to count the ingredient glycerin as a carbohydrate on nutrition labels. "The FDA has made it very clear that glycerin is effectively a carbohydrate," said Tod Cooperman, M.D., president of ConsumerLab.com. "Even though it may not be one chemically, it can be converted to glucose in the body."

Kay Stanfill, a registered and licensed dietitian for Pratt Foods, Shawnee, Okla., was concerned about the findings. "It would be especially detrimental to those who are looking for a balance, like the percentages of carbohydrate, protein and fat," she said. "That's what people are counting on."

"My understanding with foods is that the manufacturers don't even test them. They use databases. That might explain some of the problem, but some appear to be intentional," Cooperman told SN. He said consumers could calculate the calories themselves, by using the fat, protein and carbohydrate grams and multiplying them.

ConsumerLab has tested products in the vitamin and supplement arena, finding 15% of them did not meet claims. "We were hoping to find a better result in food products," said Cooperman. Instead, it was twice as high.

A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said a number of warning letters have been sent out to manufacturers, citing misbranding on the low-carb issue. Some of the products cited were Complete Pro 42 bar, Carbolight, Perfect Solid Protein Bar, Perfect Protein Cookie, Premiere 8 Ultra Low Carb Sports Bar, Carbo Solutions High Protein Bar, Protein Fuel Peanut Butter Sports Bar and Doctors Diet Low Carb Bar.

Among the brands approved by ConsumerLab were Balance Bar, Barry Sears Zone Perfect, Luna and MET-Rx.

Carbs count as 4 calories per gram; protein the same; fats 9 calories per gram. Multiply it out and it should come within 10% of the total calories, Cooperman said. "For many of these products those numbers did not add up. In some cases as much as 100 calories were missing," he said.