Buying spice mixes at the supermarket: you’re often being ripped off

Do you use prepackaged spice mixes for meat, fish, sauces or supermarket meals? Even if you prefer to mix some of the contents of your spice jars at home yourself, you may not have missed this news: a large proportion of ready-made spice mixes in supermarkets are seriously misleading.

Supermarket spice mix

Because you may think it’s convenient (or necessary) to flavour your ingredients this way, but the Consumers’ Association conducted extensive research into the composition of these kinds of packets, jars and sachets, and the results are far from cheerful.

Fake spice

It may not be illegal, but it is misleading – that is what the Consumers’ Association says. They have found that manufacturers use cheap ingredients to make up for the lack of the herbs and spices named on the product. Think salt, breadcrumbs and sugar.

Expensive joke

Vegetable powder is another filler often used in various spice mixes. Not prohibited, certainly, but the fact that this is not stated more clearly on the front of the packaging is leading people up the (herb) garden path. Verstegen’s salmon spice mix ‘with dill’ consists of 59% onion. Dill and thyme together account for 5%. There is also some garlic (8%) and wild garlic, and the rest is salt. Price per kilo? Just under sixty euros: €59.50. (And just think about how much a net of onions costs.)

Pulling the wool over people’s eyes

Verstegen is not the only brand that portrays the contents of its mixes more attractively than reality: the minced-meat spice mix from Jumbo’s own brand contains 0.04% herbs, Calvé’s salad mix contains approximately 50% added sugar (this is an estimate because the manufacturer did not disclose exactly how much), and Silvo’s mashed-potato mix also contains sugar (why?). Maggi’s nutmeg spice blend consists of 60% salt and 6% nutmeg.

Do you really find it surprising that you unknowingly consume too much salt in a day? Breadcrumbs, which are present in large quantities in various meat mixes, are not a strange ingredient in themselves because they add firmness to, for example, meatballs. But calling a mix containing 60–80% breadcrumbs a spice mix, without mentioning it on the front, and charging €20–30 per kilo while breadcrumbs cost €0.88 at Albert Heijn? That might be something to think about…

It can be done differently

The Consumers’ Association calls it ‘selling turnips as lemons’, and continues to fight against misleading practices and for transparency. An honourable mention goes to the Souq brand by Merijn Tol and Nadia Zerouali (who can also tell you how to make the lightest, most delicious couscous); their herbs and spices are genuinely pure.

Make it yourself

And you probably have plenty at home to make your own herb or spice mix. Easy, delicious and mixed exactly the way you like it. Just follow these tips for making your own global spice mixes; they’ll instantly improve your food!

Also read:

• Herbs or spices?
• How to chop a bunch of herbs in no time
• Sumac: the new super spice that makes your food look and taste better

Source: Consumers’ Association