Shrinking chocolate, cheese sauce with only 1% cheese among misleading product nominees
It’s award season again, and Foodwatch has presented the nominees for its annual “Gouden Windei” award for most misleading product. They include a chocolate bar that almost doubled in price while also becoming almost unnoticeably smaller, and a cheddar sauce that contains only 1 percent cheese.
A “windei” is the term used for an egg that is shell-less when it is laid by a hen, and is thus not viable. The word, taken from the Dutch words for "wind" and "egg", can be used metaphorically to mean a false promise, a con, or “full of hot air.” For this year's golden prize nominations, the consumer group selected seven products for the dubious Gouden Windei honor.
Calvé Cheddar Sauce by Unilever looks like a sauce made from cheddar cheese, but it consists of only 1 percent cheddar. Its main ingredients are rapeseed oil, water, sugar, and flavorings. “Essentially a mayonnaise-like sauce, which is what you might suspect from Calvé. This product name certainly suggests something different from what is actually inside.”
Mondelez’s Milka Milk Chocolate Bar shrank from 100 to 90 grams, while its price rose from €0.84 to €1.49. The company nearly doubled the price per kilogram while the packaging and appearance remained exactly the same. “Consumers pay attention to the brand and the size, not the actual weight. This way, you unknowingly pay much more for less. A classic example of shrinkflation!” Foodwatch said.
John West Protein Tuna Steak costs more than a “regular” can of tuna, but it is the same thing. “Tuna is naturally high in protein, including the ‘regular’ varieties,” Foodwatch said. “Nothing has been added or improved. The ‘protein’ label is pure marketing.”
Ella’s Kitchen Crispy Lenti Sticks promises a fiber-rich snack for kids aged 3 and up. But its main ingredient (73%) is corn flour - the same base material as in cheap corn chips. “Claims like 'high in fibers' and 'I'm organic' are meant to conceal the fact that, in terms of calories and fat, this product is just as high as Wokkels and Cheetos.”
The last nominee is a three-way combination of fruit juice and iced tea beverages that imply grander claims about their drinks. Van de Boom by Riede, 1 de Beste by Dirk, and Innocent’s packaging all include large images or words promising pear, citrus, or peach, but they actually consist mostly of low-cost apple juice, water, and flavoring.
“Up to 75% apple or only 0.1% peach. You pay for ‘premium’ fruit, but get bulk filler. Fruit vagueness as a business model,” the organization said.
Foodwatch aimed its 16th Gouden Windei awards at products that make things look better than they actually are. “Manufacturers use misleading tricks to charge the same or a higher price for products that contain very little of their namesake ingredient, or that aim to appear healthier when they are not,” Foodwatch said. “By exposing this type of deception, we want to promote honesty in the supermarket.”
Consumers can vote for the most misleading product on Foodwatch’s website.
