Albert Heijn changes the name of its Surinamese roti meal kit after criticism
That supermarkets don’t take different food cultures all that seriously isn’t exactly news. Albert Heijn and Lidl, for example, sold the crazy roti panini. It caused such a grotesque collective stroke that no roti flatbread could contain it. But Albert Heijn takes things even further: the Surinamese roti sold by the supermarket has so little to do with roti that they have changed its name.
How convenient: it’s just not displayed correctly on the website yet. The meal kit was initially called ‘Surinamese roti’, which attracted a lot of criticism. It is now simply called ‘roti’, but the website still shows the old image and old description: ‘With this kit, you can quickly make delicious, fresh Surinamese roti that you can proudly serve.’
Nothing Surinamese about it
I’m guessing there’s absolutely no one who would proudly serve this meal kit when Surinamese roti is expected. Tanni Sanichar, owner of Nino’s Surinam Food, certainly wants nothing to do with it. The meal kit contains green beans, leek, red bell pepper, parsnip, potato, sweet potato and sun-dried tomato. Sanichar tells RTL Nieuws exactly what he thinks of that: ‘Surinamese roti does not contain leek, bell pepper, sweet potato, sun-dried tomato or green beans.’ So really, only the parsnip can stay. Well, that doesn’t exactly come close to authentic Surinamese roti…
AH curry wrap
Albert Heijn came to the same conclusion on further consideration — after a storm of complaints, they changed the name. Is that enough for Sanichar? No. ‘The name on their product remains misleading. Why don’t they simply call it “AH curry wrap”?’ Well, I’m afraid that change isn’t going to happen, no matter how misleading it is. We see it more often.. in my opinion, the chicken tandoori (also a meal kit) doesn’t have much to do with real Indian cuisine either.
Not the first time AH has got it wrong
It’s strange that Albert Heijn doesn’t learn from these blunders (or, according to some, major mistakes). In 2015, there was a minor scandal surrounding Surinamese peanut soup — you guessed it; it turned out to have very little to do with Surinamese cuisine. And in 2021, an entire dish was even removed from the shelves: the Vietnamese Phở did not exactly go down well. Understandably, because people expected Vietnamese pho, and this had very little to do with it…
No waste
I really do think meal kits are a brilliant invention; they’re easy, tasty and quick to prepare — and you don’t throw anything away. But a little expectation management here and there certainly wouldn’t hurt, because that roti is fine — but absolutely not Surinamese. So it’s a good name change; now they just need to update the website. And next time, they should do a little more research into different world cuisines before putting a new ‘authentic’ dish on the shelves. Just a thought…
Read also:
- 10 things you didn’t know about supermarkets
- These 10 countries have been hit hardest by food inflation
- Watch out for this sneaky marketing trick in the supermarket
Source: RTL Nieuws // Image: Allerhande/Albert Heijn
