Consumer Association research reveals: information about online groceries is often appalling
As a consumer, you’re not always given an easy time when it comes to finding and/or comparing the right information about products. Luckily, the Consumers’ Association is keeping an eye on things and reprimanding companies when necessary. This time, they investigated how supermarket chains share mandatory information—and sometimes, the results were seriously disappointing.
It was previously revealed that, for example, information about nutritional values and allergens is often presented appallingly for ready-baked rolls sold loose in supermarkets. Now it turns out that when you want to shop for groceries online, you’re often misled when it comes to the information provided.
Shady business
How are you supposed to compare products as a customer and make the best choices based on that information if you don’t receive precise details? Pretty difficult, indeed—and when it comes to allergens, this is genuinely a matter of life and death for some people.
Incomplete information
According to the Consumers’ Association, it’s therefore important that the information supermarkets provide about what they sell is one hundred percent complete. That’s the only way to know where products come from and how healthy and sustainable they are (although Albert Heijn makes a huge blunder in that respect).
According to Babs van der Staak of the Consumers’ Association, online you “never completely know where you stand. That doesn’t exactly make grocery shopping a worry-free experience… while many people now have their groceries delivered for convenience or because they can’t or don’t want to go to the store.”
It’s not a favour
Moreover, supermarkets are legally required to provide complete product information; it’s not a luxury or something you should be grateful to receive. According to the association, which compared three hundred online pages, Albert Heijn and Plus are the most comprehensive when it comes to providing information, while delivery supermarket Picnic ranks at the bottom. Jumbo, Coop and Ekoplaza don’t do well either, receiving just two stars compared with Picnic’s one star.
The full research can be read in the November 2022 issue of Consumentengids.
Image: Albert Heijn | Yasmin Hargreaves
Also read:
- Shocking: two-thirds of Dutch restaurants fail to list allergens correctly
- Everything is backwards at the unusual TKRAMREPUS supermarket
- Eddie’s food frustrations: everything that goes wrong when your groceries are delivered
