You’re Being Led Up the Garden Path by These Supermarket Labels

There you are in the supermarket, with the best of intentions. You’ve decided to look a little more closely at where your food comes from, and you’re starting by reading those labels properly. You’ve brought your magnifying glass, because manufacturers apparently think it’s funny to make information readable only to ants (or wait a minute, do they perhaps not want you to be able to read it?) and then, then something begins that resembles a psychedelic trip.

To-tal confusion. (At least, that’s what I imagine a psychedelic trip to be like, which is why I’m not getting into it.) While sellers are required to state the origin of, for example, meat, in the supermarket you’re being seriously led up the garden path by the kinds of ambiguities described below.

Origin information impossible to follow

For unprocessed products such as unprocessed meat, but also fish, olive oil, honey and eggs, European legislation requires the packaging to state where the product comes from. But what does the description on the Albert Heijn website say when, for example, you want to add a steak to your online shopping basket? That the cattle used for it were born in the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Slovenia or Belgium.

Oh yes, and that they were then kept in one of these countries or in Australia. WHAT?? What are you supposed to do with that?! Sit at home wondering what’s going to be delivered, a little steak from the Netherlands or from a cow that has seen more of the world than you have?

A silly distinction between pepper and salt

At the next step, it all becomes even more opaque: when we’re talking about processed meat. Suddenly, the rules for stating the origin no longer apply. Those obligations don’t apply to processed meat, so a seller does have to be able to show where a ‘pure’ steak comes from (and then you get that supposedly handy list above), but this does not have to appear on the packaging of, for example, steak tips because what even are those?

Pieces of beef with a little natural flavouring. And adding just a little pepper or salt suddenly turns a product from unprocessed into processed, making it seem like the Wild West, without strict rules. Bizarre.

Saying something while saying nothing

The Consumentengids, which this month describes in meticulous detail how you’re misled as a consumer, also gives the following example, this time involving honey. On bottles of Fairtrade Original honey, it says that they contain “mixed non-EU honey”. If you think that’s already vague, take a look at the bottles from Melvita and Langnese under the magnifying glass you brought along: “Origin: mixed EU and non-EU honey”. Hellooo?! That could be anything.

You’re not stupid

You’d think that manufacturers and sellers would eventually realise that many people do genuinely care about the chain products pass through before ending up on their plates or in their glasses. By not taking consumers seriously and treating transparency as a joke, there’s a chance that people will eventually stop putting up with it. If, for example, you want to buy as locally as possible, or don’t feel like eating meat from a country whose policies on animals or food safety you disagree with, shouldn’t you be able to make that choice yourself?

Someone has to do it

Some European countries, such as France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, had already had enough of this vagueness and tightened their national regulations on origin labels themselves. The Netherlands is still lagging behind for now. Fortunately, the Consumentengids can report that the European Commission is not sitting still and is reconsidering the current legislation in order to introduce improvements. Only then will you, as a consumer, be able to make informed choices while grocery shopping. And don’t forget: you decide what you want to spend your money on.

Read also:

• Albert Heijn’s parent company warns of price increases
• Lidl pioneers sustainability once again, this time with rice
• 5 simple tips for sustainable cooking

Source: Consumentengids (no. 3, March 2022)