The Reason People Can't Believe Aldi's Olive Oil Cooking Spray Label

If you've ever bought Aldi's olive oil cooking spray in the aerosol can, you might not have paid much attention to the nutritional label. But if you take a second glance, the label can be very surprising and downright misleading. Aldi shoppers have recently caught on and they're raising some very good points about the cooking spray that are worth noting.

The first jolting number on the nutritional label can be seen in a photo that was posted to Reddit, which shows that each can of the cooking spray contains an absurd 659 servings. However, each one is just a quarter of a second spray, which is hardly any olive oil at all. Naturally, regular olive oil from a bottle is not calorie free, and people are starting to put it all together. They're saying they can't believe the nutritional information anymore, and are planning to double check all their future food labels.

One tablespoon of olive oil typically contains a whopping 120 calories, as well as 2.2 grams of saturated fat and about 12 grams of unsaturated healthy fats. That clearly means that if you hold down the aerosol can nozzle for much longer than the claimed quarter-second spray, calories will amount. One Redditor said, "659 servings in this little bottle — at 0 calories per 1/4 second spray, you can't go wrong!" However, that's not really true.

Another Reddit user wrote back saying, "Apparently one of the bottles of Olive Oil PAM reveals that five quarter-second sprays are 10 calories. So about 2 calories per serving?" One more comment read, "For those who obsessively track calories, a one-second spray is 9 cals." Even though the calorie count is still minimal, it can add up quickly if you are not paying attention and really load it on. Someone else on Reddit explained, "By law, when the values are below a certain threshold, it doesn't need to be on the label. That's why they can put zero calories. If the serving size was like, a teaspoon or something, they would have to put the numbers in." So, the next time you reach for the can, be aware of what you're actually doing.