Foods that fool.

Food labels aren't what they used to be...thank goodness.

Now you can flip over almost any package and find a food's nutrient numbers--its "Nutrition Facts"--in print that s visible to the naked eye. No longer can key nutrients like saturated fat and fiber be deleted. And companies can't make up their own serving sizes or definitions for claims like "low-fat."

But thanks to Yankee ingenuity--and a handful of obscure loopholes in the regulations--you can still slip up.

Here are some "clues" that can reveal the label's innermost secrets. Now you're foolproof

Bring Your Calculator

One glance at the "Nutrition Facts" labels on Jell-O's line of "No Bake Desserts" may not get your saturated fat alarms ringing too loundy. The label says that a serving of the Double Layer Cookies & Creme Dessert, for example, has eight grams of fat--four of them saturated. Or so it appears.

Your clue: Those numbers only apply if you rip open the bags of crust, filling, and cookie pieces and eat them dry. If you're one of those people who prefer to eat their desserts assembled--that means adding milk and margarine--you'll have a tough time figuring out how many grams of total and saturated fat this little baby packs.

Oh sure. The label does say that a serving of the prepared dish has 29 percent of the Daily Value (DV) for total fat and 31 percent of the DV for sat fat. And you could just follow the double asterisks to the DVs at the bottom of the label and multiply 0.29 times 65 grams (the DV for total fat) and 0.31 times 20 grams (the DV for saturated fat). Then you'd know that a prepared serving supplies 19 grams of fat, six of them saturated (and who knows how much artery-clogging bans fat?).

Thanks for making it so easy, Jell-O.

Juicy Secrets

What with a name like Country Raspbery and all those raspberries on the carton, you'd expect Dole to be selling mostly raspberry juice. In fact, this "flavored blend of 4 fruit juices" has more apple, pineapple, grape, and lemon than raspberry. (Sounds like five juices to us...but who's counting?)

Your clue: the word "flavored." It's supposed to warn consumers that the raspberry juice is there more in name than in quantity. (You didn't know that?)

Always check the ingredient list on juice labels. It lists juices from most to least abundant. Grape and apple--the least nutritious--often top the list because they're usually the least expensive.

Light of Hand

Just about every food Marie Callender touches turns to cholesterol deposits in your arteries. Thanks to Marie's heavy hand, this Fettucini Primavera with Tortellini in a Light Cream Sauce eats up 29 percent of your day's total fat and 40 percent of your day's saturated fat.

But some people may get fooled by the "light" cream sauce. According to the FDA, "light" usually means a third fewer calories than--or half the fat of--a similar food.

Unfortunately, the agency left a few loopholes. Cream, brown sugar, and other foods that are traditionally described as light can use the term without any reason. But the loophole doesn't apply to light cream sauce, which makes this label illegal. I

Your clue: If there's no I explanation, like "Light--a third fewer calories," the food's not really light.

Got a FLashlight?

It's always tough to read th fine print. Like when the TV screen flashes an 18-line disclosure about financing for the few seconds of a car commercial.

But Hershey's new line of Sweet Escapes candy bars brings the art of disclosing--or not disclosing--to new heights. The disclosures are so well-hidden--dark brown print on a dark brown background--that you hardly know they're there.

Should you have Superman's everything eyesight or a flashlight, you'd learn that the candy bar shown on the label is "larger than actual size" (it's about double). Another disclosure tells you to "see back panel for information about saturated fat and other nutrients."

That's your tip-off that--despite the "33% less fat" claim (in nice, clear print)--this food is high in saturated fat for its small serving size.

Your clue: Any time a "see back panel" disclosure names a nutrient, the food contains too much of it.

Banana Flavor Bars

See those two slices of banana on the package? We figure that's how much banana you'd get in a whole box of SnackWell's Banana Snack Bars.

A close reading of the ingredient list reveals that each bar has less banana puree than vegetable shortening, which supplies most of the bar's small amount of fat. And since each bar has no more than two grams of fat, it can't have more than that much banana. Two grams is a fourteenth Of an ounce--that's a quarter of a teaspoon of banana.

Your clue: The words "naturally flavored" near the word "Banana" mean "almost no fruit." The company put pictures of bananas on the box...to evoke a mood, to match the yellow banner, who knows? Certainly it didn't mean to imply that you're getting lots of fruit. Nah.

Out-of-Date DVs

You may not have noticed them, but the "% Daily Values" on food labels are quite valuable. They tell you how much of a day's worth of fat, sodium, fiber, or other nutrients a serving of the food contains.

But the Daily Values for vitamins and minerals haven't been updated since 1974. Take calcium. The DV is 1,000 ma, but two National Institutes of Health Consensus Conferences have recommended 1,500 mg a day for postmenopausal women who don't take estrogen and for anyone older than 65.

If that's you, a serving of Bumble Bee Red Salmon supplies not 10 percent, but just over six percent of your DV for calcium. A glass of skim milk has 20 percent, not 30 percent.

Your clue: If your DV for calcium is 1,500 ma, lop off a third of the calcium "% Daily Value" whenever you're label reading.

Isn't Nature Wonderful'

What's a "natural" food? To many people, it means whole, unprocessed things like fresh fruits and vegetables. So what's the word "natural" doing on a jar of Lipton Natural Brew Diet Iced Tea Mix, which is made with maltodextrin, citric acid, the artificial sweetener Nutrasweet (aspartame), and natural flavors?

To the FDA, "natural" means no "added color, synthetic substances, or flavors." That's better than words like "smart" or "wholesome," which aren't defined. "Natural refers to the process, not the ingredients," explains Lipton spokesperson Susan Balik. "All of the ingredients are natural, except that the diet tea has Nutrasweet." Oh. Your clue: "Natural" doesn't mean "healthy." (Lard is natural.) And--like Lipton's tea--it may not even mean "nothing artificial."

Healthy Junk

To its credit, the FDA takes the word "healthy" seriously. For starters, a "healthy" food has to be low in fat and saturated fat and not high in sodium. Unfortunately, the FDA sets no limit on sugar in "healthy" foods. But it does make at least a feeble attempt to guard against "healthy" junk. They call it "the jelly bean rule."

The rule says that a food labeled "healthy" must have at least 10 percent of the Daily Value for vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, or fiber. Last August, Betty Crocker's Healthy Temptations Fudge Brownies a la Mode didn't meet even this modest standard.

Your clue: "Healthy" junk foods are better than fattier ones. But if you're eating "healthy" brownies instead of fresh fruit, guess who you're fooling? (General Mills, Betty's parent company, told us that the error was "unintentional," and that it would begin making a new, reformulated product by early September that did meet the definition of `healthy.')