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 you’re served match the nutritional profile promised?

Consumer Reports decided to find out. For its May issue, the magazine’s secret shoppers went to a dozen well-known restaurants and fast-food chains, from Applebee’s to Wendy’s, 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 Garden’s 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. That’s more than the 20 percent variance that’s 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.

“If they had, we would have been able to provide them with accurate data,” they said.

Consumer Reports' tests also showed the Chicken on the Barbie at Outback Steakhouse had more fat than advertised. The website claim was 7 grams of fat. The magazine’s analysis showed 10 to 13 grams.

"Nutritional information on our website has been verified by a recognized independent laboratory,” said Outback spokesperson Cathie Koch in an email to TODAY. “Our food is made from scratch daily using fresh ingredients. The variance in the report may be due to a larger container of sauce used for Take-Away."

This is not an exact science
Obviously, the calorie and fat content of the food you are served will not be exactly the same as what’s advertised on the menu or company website, but it should be in the ballpark.

That was not always the case with Denny’s Fit Slam breakfast. At two of the three locations Consumer Reports visited, the Fit Slam generally matched the advertised claim of 390 calories and 12 grams of fat. But at the third location, it was way off the mark: 494 calories and 19 grams of fat.

In a statement, Denny's said that it had not reviewed Consumer Reports' findings.

"Our goal is for each of our menu items to be created identically each time they are prepared," the statement said. "However, because all of Denny's food is prepared fresh and made to order by an individual cook, every dish is unique, including the exact portion size and the precise formulation or ingredient ratios. We recognize the importance of providing our guests with as accurate nutritional information as possible and will continue to do so.”

The National Restaurant Association says its members take extensive measures to make sure the nutritional information they provide customers is as accurate as possible. 

“But there are variations due to portion size and individual restaurant preparation, as well as the inherent variability of the food itself,” noted Joy Dubost, director of Nutrition at the National Restaurant Association.

The numbers will also be off if the portion size of the meal you’re served varies significantly from what is on the menu.

Consumer Reports found that serving sizes at the same chain “ran the gamut” from location to location.  For example, the Fettuccine Alfredo at the three Olive Garden restaurants visited weighed roughly 14 to 22 ounces.

The editors said portion sizes also “varied widely” at Applebee’s, Denny’s and Red Lobster.

National menu labeling on the way
Menu labeling is required in California and Vermont, and in a few major cities: New York City, Seattle and Philadelphia. It will soon be mandatory at chain restaurants – those with 20 or more locations – nationwide.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue rules about nutrition labeling by this fall. They would take effect in late 2014.

 “Over time, this will help people make more informed choices and cut calories,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “And just as importantly, it provides an incentive for the restaurants to reformulate their items.”

Santa’s not the only one with a list. Consumer Reports released its annual “Naughty & Nice” list today, a way to highlight company policies and practices that deserve cheers or jeers. 

The list is based on suggestions from the magazine’s staff as well as Facebook fans. The 100 nominees were whittled down to 10 naughty and 10 nice. 

Tod Marks, Consumer Reports’ senior editor, says the companies on the naughty list have “hidden or tricky fees, fine print or generally unfriendly practices.”  Those on the nice list “went the extra mile” to make sure their customers were happy patrons. 

Consumer Reports stresses that this list is not an evaluation or rating of a company. It’s a thumbs up or down on a specific policy or practice. 

“We have companies that we like a lot when we rate them, but they make the naughty list, and vice versa,” Marks explained. 

In preparing this year’s Naughty & Nice list, Marks read a lot of the comments posted on the Consumer Reports Facebook page. He told me he noticed a lot of angst and aggravation. 

“People are really ticked off because they don’t feel they have a voice,” he said. “When they want to get information or complain about something, they can’t get a live human being on the phone or they’re kept on hold for an inordinate amount of time. They feel like their complaints are falling on deaf ears." 

Here are some of the companies that made the Nice list:  

• Honda got a shout out for putting rearview cameras – a safety feature normally reserved for high-end vehicles – on most of its 2013 models. The cameras are now standard on all Honda trucks and SUVs, as well as the top-selling Accord and Civic. 
• Publix, one of the top-rated supermarket chains in Consumer Reports surveys, won praise for its policy of giving customers an item for free if the scanned price at checkout is more than the shelf price or advertised price. Years ago, this was common practice at many supermarkets. 

Many of the companies won praise for their generous return policy. 

• OXO guarantees all its ergonomically-designed housewares. If you are not completely satisfied, return it for a refund or replacement. 
• Safeway promises “fresh and delicious” produce every time. If you don’t like that mushy melon or bruised apple, bring it back for a refund or replacement. 
• Red Wing Shoe Company offers an unconditional 30-day comfort guarantee. If you don’t like the way those shoes feel, bring them back for a refund or exchange, no questions asked. 
• Nordstrom got a tip of the hat for its free shipping and free returns on all orders. 
• Kohl’s made the list for its “No Questions Asked – Hassle-Free” return policy for all purchases, whether online or in-store. There is no time limit. The editors say such a generous policy is uncommon for middle-of-the road retailers. 

Here are some of the companies on the Naughty list: 

• Spirit Airlines offers super-low prices, but it landed here for its new fee – as much as $100 – for carry-on bags that won’t fit under the seat and must be stowed in the overhead bins. “That’s more than you would pay for a checked bag!” Marks exclaimed. The carry-on fee depends on when you let the airline know you’ll need the over-head bin space: in advance, at the airport or at the gate. 
• Ticketmaster was cited for charging customers $2.50 per order to print their tickets at home. The editors said that charge is “especially hard to justify” since Ticketmaster will mail those same tickets for free if you book far enough in advance. The company says tickets are sent out a leisurely 10 to 14 days after purchase. 
• Forever 21, the apparel store, got dinged for its return policy. If you return an online order to a retail location you can only exchange the item or get a store credit. But if you mail it back, you can get a refund. “It would be nice if the policy was consistent all around,” Marks said. 
• CompUSA was called out for automatically adding a “free” download for antivirus software to some purchases. Consumer Reports shopped the site and found that it was not made clear this free subscription only lasted six months. If it wasn’t cancelled before then, there would be a charge of $49.99. “We have a pet peeve about those freebies that are automatically added to orders that force people to unclick the item so it’s not added to the shopping cart,” Marks explained. 
• Tiger Direct.com got slammed for its restocking policy which is “vague” and has one of the highest penalty fees around. Among other things, Tiger Direct requires returned items to be in the same condition as when sold and in the original packaging. The company says all returns “will be inspected and products found to be non-conforming will be rejected or subject to a restocking fee” of up to 25 percent at the company’s sole discretion.  It’s not clear what triggers that maximum fee. 

Lessons to be learned 
Tod Marks has been watching retail practices for decades, so he doesn’t expect companies to change their policies based on the magazine’s Naughty & Nice list. He does hope it encourages people to be better consumers. 

“If nothing else, this exercise will show people how important it is to read the fine print and understand that companies do have very divergent policies,” he said. “It makes sense to understand them and be an informed shopper before you make the purchase."

Read the complete list of Consumer Reports Naughty & Nice List 2012

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

The right product to buy? You know you need to do your research, but who has the time? 

What most people don't realize, Mandy Walker, senior projects editor at Consumer Reports told NBC News by phone, is that you can "often get top quality products, from a brand name, at a good price." That's good news in this economic climate, where every penny counts more than ever. 

From their low-slung brown brick headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., the testers, engineers, scientists, journalists and consumer advocates at Consumer Reports put a dizzying array of products through a battery of grueling tests, all year long. Now they've culled from all that data and published their 475 Best Products of the Year to give you a handy buyer's guide cheat sheet. These are the best of the best. From large to small appliances, from electronics to  wine, whether you're gearing up for Turkey Day or getting a jump on holiday shopping, don't enter the shopping aisles without it.

To make it onto the list of best products at the best prices, a product really has to get high marks in the Consumer Reports testing facility.

To test washers, they put a piece of fabric through the washer multiple times and then count by hand the number of threads exposed in the worn-down area. Vacuums are hooked up to a mechanical guide and forced to suck up crumb after crumb and hair after hair. They have a special room for testing audio equipment, baffled so that it's completely soundproof and echo free. To make sure that no building vibration disturbed the tests, it sits on a completely separate foundation from the rest of the building. Everything is measured, tested, and the results are tallied and reported.

Another thing that most people don't realize is that to maintain its objectivity and independence, Consumer Reports doesn't test samples provided by the manufacturers. They have an army of secret shoppers who buy the products on the open market and then ship them back to Yonkers for testing. That's to make sure the manufacturers don't send them any "goosed" versions that would cheat the tests.

"We test products for consumers from rival manufacturers to make sure they're going to work well, work for a long time, and that they're safe," says Walker. "That's our mandate."

Here's the best of the best:

• Best washer: LG Washer WM3470HVA, $1100‬
• Best dryer: LG Dryer DLEX3470V, $1200‬
• Best vacuum: ‪Kenmore Intuition 31100, $250 bagless upright
• Best TV: ‪TV Samsung UN55ES8000, $2500‬
• Best tablet: ‪iPad 3 16 GB 3rd Generation $500 OR ‪Google Nexus 7 16 GB $250
• Best eReader: Barnes and Noble Nook Simple touch $100 
• Best SLR camera: ‪Nikon D3200 $700
• Best camera: Nikon Coolpix AW100 $300
• Best GPS: ‪Garmin Nuvi 2455LT $160
• Best Mac laptop: Apple Mac Book Pro 15 inch $2200
• Best PC laptop: ‪HP Pavillion M6-1045DX $700
• Best streaming player: ‪Roku 2 Streaming Player $80
• Best olive oil: 16 oz. Trader Joe's California Estate Olive Oil
• Best red wine: ‪Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon $10‬
• Best white wine: ‪Bogle Chardonnay, $10‬
• Best coffeemaker: ‪Krups Grinder & Brewer KM7000, $130

Check out more of the 475+ Best Products of the Year over at Consumer Reports.

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Wegmans

Wegmans, with 79 stores in the Eastern U.S., ranked No. 1 in a Consumer Reports survey of readers.

Wegmans and Trader Joe's are the nation's favorite supermarket chains while Pathmark and Wal-Mart rank at the bottom in a Consumer Reports survey released Tuesday.

Wegmans, which has stores in New York and several other East Coast states, topped the list, with Trader Joe’s and Publix close behind, according to the survey, compiled based on feedback from 24,203 readers.

Pathmark, a chain based in the Northeast, Wal-Mart Supercenter and Shaw's ranked lowest on the list.

All of the top picks received very high marks for service and cleanliness. Pathmark and Wal-Mart received the lowest marks for service, but Wal-Mart got excellent rankings for its prices.

But even at the most highly rated stores, readers still found plenty to criticize.

In general, the most common complaint was a shortage of checkout lanes. About one-fourth of the people who surveyed had that complaint.

Other gripes had to do with customer service. Readers complained about congested or cluttered aisles, advertised specials that were out of stock and inept bagging.

Rising grocery prices also appeared to be weighing heavily on people’s minds. Forty-three percent of those surveyed said they had switched grocers because they were looking for lower prices.

The stores with the five highest ratings were:

1. Wegmans
2. Trader Joe’s
3. Publix
4. Fareway Stores
5. Costco

The stores that received the lowest ratings were:

1. Pathmark
2. Wal-Mart Supercenter
3. Shaw’s
4. A&P
5. Jewel-Osco

Consumer Reports also offered a few tips for cutting your grocery bill, no matter where you shop.

Beware of sneaky signs: Just because something says “5 for $5” doesn’t mean you have to buy that many items.

Watch for the 9s: Just because something is $6.99 (or even 99 cents) doesn’t mean it’s a bargain.

Look around: Consumer Reports noted that vendors pay dearly to be right in your line of vision. Look for items that are high or low on the shelf, or those that aren’t featured at the end of the aisle. You may get a better deal.

Costco deilvers on customer satisfaction. Although you have to buy it in bulk and may require a forklift and Escalade to take it home.

When it comes to pleasing customers, Costco does a better job than any other major retailer in the country. 

At least that is the conclusion from an extensive survey conducted by Consumer Reports. 

"People like a lot of things about Costco,” says senior editor Mandy Walker. "They were extremely happy with the quality of the things they bought there and the price they paid.” 

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports has tested about 155,000 products, including this portable hair dryer in 1961.

Consumers Union, the world's largest independent product-testing organization and publisher of Consumer Reports, just celebrated its 75^th anniversary. 

Over the years, Consumers Union testers have used and abused about 155,000 products: car seats, cell phones, computers, eyeglasses, refrigerators, sneakers, space heaters, toasters and washing machines, plus cars, trucks and SUVs, just to name a few.

When they first tested vacuum cleaners back in 1936, a couple of models were found to have “a slight electrical shock hazard.” Today, you don’t have to worry about getting zapped by your vacuum. But the magazine’s latest tests show the performance you get still varies greatly from model to model. 

Consumer Reports

Instant glue was tested in 1973 by Consumer Reports.

I was in New York last week, for the big 75^th anniversary celebration and had the chance to speak to Jim Guest, the president of Consumer Reports. 

“I love what I do,” Guest told me. “Consumer Reports is an American icon. We’re probably the most trusted institution in America. We’re absolutely independent. People know we’re telling the truth and helping millions and millions of people.” 

Guest says today’s products are safer and more reliable than they were 75 years ago. There are also better regulations in place to protect you. But he says advertising, in many cases, “is just as misleading today as it was back then.”

Consumer Reports

Do-it-yourself perm kits were tested by Consumer Reports in 1938.

Here is a bit more of our conversation:

You’ve never accepted advertising, which means you can call it as you see it. But why do you fight so hard to keep companies from using your ratings in their ads? If you find a product to be top-rated, why don’t you want a company to say that?

To really understand what we’ve got, you have to see the whole article. Picking just a little quote here or a little fact there, that’s not really serving consumers well. And you’re right. We never take any corporate contributions or corporate money or any kind. We don’t take free samples. We have anonymous shoppers around the country who buy the products we test, so no one can rig-up the products. We maintain strict independence. Our only interest is consumers.  

Consumer Reports

When automatic coffee makers started becoming a popular household appliances in the late 1950s, Consumer Reports was there.

Consumer advocates had some great victories when the Democrats controlled Congress. But now, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back the clock. You and other consumer groups are spending a lot of time and money to stop that, which takes away from efforts to get new protections in place.

We’re working real hard. We fought for protections against financial scams. We fought for safe drugs, and safe toys. And they’re at risk. The forces on the other side are trying to capitalize on the consumer and we’re trying to protect the consumer.  

You see the federal government as the answer to some of these problems, as a way to protect the consumer. But the current sentiment in this country right now among many people is that government is bad and we’ve got to get it off our backs.

Consumer Reports

In 1951, Consumer Reports tested the safety of irons.

We believe in a free market. We think consumers ought to be able to make independent choices. But they’ve got to be informed. Who can understand a credit card contract that’s 40 or 50 pages long? We just want to make sure that things are transparent, that people can understand what’s being offered and that they understand the risks. (We want) regulations requiring transparency and requiring that the truth be told — what’s wrong with that?   

Your tests often uncover products that are dangerous or simply don’t perform as promised. Do companies make changes; are things fixed because you find these defects?

That’s one of the tremendously rewarding things about working at Consumer Reports. We’ll rate a product that doesn’t measure up, and then we open up our records. If the manufacturer says ‘why did you rate us poorly,’ we’ll show them the test we used. We’ll show them the data on their product. And fairly often, when we come back to rate that product again a year or two later, they’ve made improvements and corrected the deficiencies. That’s incredibly satisfying.  

More Information: Consumer Reports at 75 

Consumer Reports readers are pretty happy with their iPhones, but they aren’t nearly so happy with AT&T, the only cell phone carrier for the Apple phone.

AT&T ranked last in a survey of 58,000 Consumerreports.org readers due to be released Tuesday, and the magazine didn’t pull any punches in summarizing its findings.

“This carrier scored lowest in satisfaction in almost all cities in our survey and was the worst-rated in almost all other respects,” the authors wrote.

Ouch.

Consumers’ readers were much more favorable toward the phone itself. The latest model, the iPhone 4, received high marks for display, phone navigation, web browsing and battery life, among other things.

Consumer Reports said the iPhone did well in its tests as well, but the report’s authors noted that Apple’s smart phone faces a growing list of strong competitors. Those include the HTC Evo 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S models.

When it came to carriers, the magazine said Verizon Wireless and Sprint were about even in overall satisfaction, followed closely by T-Mobile. But the authors said regional operator U.S. Cellular, which only does business in 26 states, was the top-rated carrier for contract service.

The magazine also offered some tips for cutting cell phone costs. Among them: consider a family plan, check out employee discounts and buy your phone at warehouse store Costco.

The full story is due out on the website Tuesday, but Consumer Reports provided msnbc.com with a copy ahead of time. It also summarized its findings in this blog post.

Update: A spokeswoman representing AT&T responded to the Consumer Reports story, saying that the company believes it has the fastest mobile broadband network and that its dropped call rate is not far off from the industry leader.

"We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience," the statement read.