Inaccurate Nutrient Calculations (and statements) are Everywhere

Lately, I've been reading several articles about the national restaurant menu labeling legislation passed in March and the abundance of professional opportunities expected to arise in the upcoming months. Specifically, I'm referring to Section 4205 of H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, which mandates that restaurants and food vendors with more than 20 locations make calorie and nutrient information readily available to consumers. (What, you haven't read the whole bill?)

It's abundantly clear to me that menu calculations must be conducted by someone with both nutrition and culinary expertise. Let me provide an example:

Last week, I received nutrition information from a vendor to use in my calculations of a patient's food record (this vendor supplies certain types of meals to the hospital). Here's the info I was sent for one meal (fish and mixed vegetables):

350 calories 

3.5g total fat
116.20 calories from fat
5.90g total carbohydrate
31.40g total protein

What's wrong with this picture? Well, let's start with the basics: fat has 9 calories per gram, protein and carbohydrate each have 4 calories per gram. Clearly, the item above must have more than 3.5g of fat if the fat is contributing 116.2 calories (116.2/9 = 12.9 g of total fat is more likely to be the case). However, if you multiply all the macronutrients (fat, carb, protein) by their calories, I still don't end up with 350 total calories:

12.9g fat x 9 calories = 116.1
5.9g carb x 4 calories = 23.6
31.4g protein x 4 calories = 125.6
116.1 + 23.6 + 125.6 = 265.3 total calories. Even with some room for rounding, that's not very close! 

Later the same day, I was researching the nutrient composition of ackee, a fruit commonly consumed in Jamaica. The dish in question was a rather complicated listing on a food record (saltfish and ackee with a number of other ingredients).

Ackee is not in NDSR (Nutrition Data System for Research - what I use at work) nor the USDA's database. I conducted some internet searches until I came across a brief article on ackee nutrition info from Livestrong.com which states; "The Pan American Health Organization, PAHO, says that the ackee is a good source of stearic, linoleic, and palmitic acids. These fatty acids make up 55 percent of the total fatty acids in the ackee and provide a readily available source of fatty acids in the traditional Jamaican diet. It has no saturated fat or cholesterol."

Ok, wait. As a plant food, it makes sense that ackee has no cholesterol. However, 2 of the 3 fatty acids listed above (stearic and palmitic acids) are saturated fatty acids, so clearly ackee contains some saturated fat. I'm not sure who made the mistake - was the PAHO misquoted by Livestrong.com, or did they provide inaccurate information?  Either way, it's annoying!