How Do Food Companies Determine "Serving Size"?

"With old data. The Food and Drug Administration provides an exhaustively detailed set of guidelines to help manufacturers set portion size based on the amount the average person is likely to eat at once—or, in jargon, the "reference amount customarily consumed." The agency arrives at this figure—always expressed in grams—by factoring in survey data, recommendations from food and nutrition organizations, and customs in other countries. One reason official serving sizes seem so small is that the survey data comes largely from studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1970s and '80s, when Americans consumed less food than they do now."

This Pint of Ben & Jerry's Is Four Servings?
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2240844/