By Herb Weisbaum, TODAY contributor

Most big chain restaurants now put nutrition information calories, fat and sodium on their menus and websites. But just how accurate are these numbers? Does the meal youre served match the nutritional profile promised?

Consumer Reports decided to find out. For its May issue, the magazines secret shoppers went to a dozen well-known restaurants and fast-food chains, from Applebees to Wendys, and ordered 17 different items. They tested the same item from three restaurants in each chain.

The good news: In most cases, the published information was accurate.

We found that you can usually trust the figures you see, said editor Leslie Ware. On average, most of them were telling the truth.

Only two of the 17 dishes Consumer Reports analyzed in the lab had a fat or calorie count that was higher than promised at all three locations.

Olive Gardens Lasagna Primavera with Grilled Chicken was supposed to have 420 calories and 15 grams of fat. The samples the magazine tested had 508 to 585 calories and 25 to 32 grams of fat. Thats more than the 20 percent variance thats generally considered acceptable with nutrition information.

The company told TODAY it takes great care to provide accurate nutrition information. In an email, Olive Garden explained that an error had been made in the initial testing of the entree when it was introduced last October.

As soon as we caught this error, we retested the dish and updated the nutritional information on our website with the new data in late December, the email said. Unfortunately, though, the information was not updated everywhere and one page on our website still contained the old nutritional data. We have since corrected this, too.

Olive Garden told TODAY that Consumer Reports never contacted them to confirm the numbers and did not give them an opportunity to respond.

See the article here:
Consumer Reports puts restaurant nutrition claims to the test