Whether vanilla pudding without vanilla, peanut sauce without peanuts or pistachio yoghurt without pistachios: some supermarket products are missing the very ingredient that you would most likely expect based on the product name and the picture on the packaging. And this is even legally permitted – the Hamburg consumer advice center speaks of “legal consumer deception”.
The perceived label fraud is made possible by manufacturers using terms such as “with vanilla flavor” or the English variants “flavor” or “taste”. Even the inconspicuous word “type” on the packaging is enough for manufacturers to only put flavors or tiny amounts of the advertised food in the product instead of the actual ingredient. “Often the advertised food cannot be found in the list of ingredients,” criticizes the consumer advice center.
To show what this looks like in practice for customers, the consumer advocates have put together a few examples from supermarket shelves. The products demonstrate how easily customers can be duped if they do not read the small print on the ingredient list to find out what is really in the food (see photo series).
The consumer advocates’ criticism: “From a purely legal perspective, descriptions with the addition of “type”, “taste” or “taste” are permitted. But many consumers still fall for the label fraud because the meaning is not clear to them.” In addition, the word “type” in particular is often placed so inconspicuously – sometimes in smaller font size – that buyers can easily miss it. On the other hand, the ingredients that are not actually included are sometimes even prominently displayed with a picture on the packaging.
