Too-sweet fruit juice, watery guacamole, and sugary mayonnaise: Consumer group Foodwatch has denounced seven food products - and their packaging and marketing - as “scams” in a new list.
Foodwatch said that the marketing for these products was “dishonest”, and/or did not reflect promises on the label.
This was likely to cause consumers to be “tricked”, either about the composition of the food, or its supposed health claims, it said.
Its 2024 summer list (the sixth annual list) comprises:
Basil gazpacho from Florette, which contains just 0.2% basil.
A ‘sugar-free’ strawberry-flavoured water from the Leclerc brand Marque Repère, which has sweeteners and colouring.
Old El Paso guacamole, which is mainly made with water and has just 13.6% avocado.
‘La vie en mauve’ juice from Innocent (pomegranate, raspberry, apple and rose water), which is sold as “good for your health and skin” but contains 9.6 grams of sugar per 100ml.
Dry ‘old-fashioned’ saucisson from the Intermarché own brand Monique Ranou, which contains the controversial preservative nitrates.
Low-fat mayonnaise from Carrefour, which contains more water and three times as much sugar as the regular mayonnaise.
Italian olive breadsticks from Panealba, presented as ‘traditional’ but which contain palm oil.
Audrey Morice, head of the Foodwatch campaign, said that these types of marketing claims affect all kinds of products, brands, and supermarkets.
“Our aim is to provide a non-exhaustive list of all the things that can affect consumers,” she said to RMC Conso, and branded the labelling on the seven named products as a “scam”.
Foodwatch has now added the brands concerned to its “wall of scam labels” website (mur des arnaques sur l'étiquette), in a bid to name and shame products whose “marketing promises do not match up to reality”.
The aim is to highlight these practices, and invite consumers to pay more attention when shopping.
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The website shows the product in a photo, its name, brand, and supermarket for each, as well as explanations as to why the product is listed.
Foodwatch has added these products to its “wall of scam labels” websiteFoodwatch.org
Other products to be identified include:
Lucien Georgelin black cherry jam, which claims to be made in France, but the fruit is imported from Greece and Bulgaria.
Liebig cream of asparagus with morels, which contains just 0.7% morels, 3% cream and 3.8% asparagus.
Consumers can submit their own products for consideration on the ‘wall’ by hitting the red “Je Signale un Produit” button on the website.
Yet, the association did concede that these practices appear to have become less common overall, although other practices such as shrinkflation are still commonplace. (Shrinkflation is when companies sell less of the product but charge the same as for the larger pack.)
