Herb mixes often contain few herbs: Consumers' Association

A jar of herb mix often contains few herbs and spices. The rest of the mix consists of cheap filler such as salt, sugars, or vegetables. This information comes from a report conducted by the Consumers' Association based on a sample.

The meat mixes from Lidl and Aldi consist of three-quarters of salt. Jumbo's spice mix is 80 percent breadcrumbs and contains "only 0.04 percent" spices, according to the Consumers' Association. Calvé's salad mixes contain mainly sugar and at most 12 percent spices. Maggi's beef stew mix consists overwhelmingly of flour.

"The name and the packaging suggest that there are a lot of spices in these mixes," says Consumers' Association director Sandra Molenaar. "In reality, manufacturers stuff them full of cheap ingredients. This is misleading, and in the case of salt, also unhealthy." The mix for kip traditioneel from Verstegen accounts for more than half of the recommended daily salt intake. 

The Consumers' Association wants to see stricter rules prohibiting the addition of large amounts of salt. Misleading packaging must be addressed, according to the association. "Time and again, it turns out that we cannot leave this to the manufacturers," says Molenaar.