Supermarket brand products ‘cheaper but less healthy’
Own-brand products can cost up to 30% less than branded items, but are often of poorer quality, a new study claims
Supermarkets have been producing and selling more own-brand products in recent years as inflation caused food prices to soar
Victor Velter / luca pbl / HJBC / Proxima Studio / Shutterstock
Many supermarket ‘own brand’ products are cheaper but not necessarily healthy, claims a French consumer group in a new study based on thousands of food items.
The magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs analysed the quality of up to 6,000 food products branded ‘marques de distributeurs (MDD, supermarket own brand)’, with the results published by the national consumer institute l’Institut national de la consommation (INC).
The product data is also found in the food database Open Food Facts, across six supermarket groups:
Auchan
Carrefour
Intermarché
E. Leclerc
Lidl
Coopérative U
The results show significant disparities and often poor-quality results, the consumer magazine said.
Poor Nutri-Score ratings
The majority of products on the shelves have the lowest Nutri-Score values of ‘E’ or ‘D’, highlighted the study. This is mainly due to additives, nitrates and emulsifiers, it said.
“The overall picture is rather bad,” the study said. “Out of 30 of the most commonly sold products, only four receive a ‘good’ rating, compared with eight ‘very bad’ scores, all brands combined.
“We see that some brands do without additives completely, while others will put two or three in the same product,” said Sylvie Metzelard, editor-in-chief of the magazine.
“[These ingredients are not] prohibited,” she said. “However, recent studies show that these additives can cause problems such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, especially emulsifiers.”
The study also found the frequent presence of “12 additives that are very bad for health”, some of which have been linked to “increased risks” of cardiovascular disease, or cancer, particularly breast and prostate cancer, added Ms Metzelard.
She advised consumers to always check the labels on food packaging, to be sure that the own-brand items do not contain excess additives.
Read more: Why Nutri-score gives A to factory chips and E to farmers’ cheese
Read also: Nutrition label not mandatory on food in France, health minister says
More own-brand products
It comes after supermarkets have been producing and selling more own-brand products, particularly over the years 2022 and 2023, due to increasing prices caused by higher inflation levels.
Own-brand products tend to be 20-30% cheaper than their branded equivalents, even though all prices have risen overall (although a more recent drop in inflation has led to lower prices this year so far).
Read more: How lower inflation rate is affecting food prices in France
Read also: Purchasing power in France set to improve in 2025
Own-brand prices can vary significantly even between supermarkets. For example, the study found that own-brand products sold in E.Leclerc stores are 5.5% cheaper than the average of all own-brand products sold. This was closely followed by Carrefour (2.7% cheaper), and Intermarché (2% cheaper).
In contrast, own-brand products sold in Monoprix stores are on average 16.7% more expensive than their equivalents in other supermarkets.
