The association points in particular to practices “which mislead the consumer”.
A juicy strawberry on a pot of yogurt containing very little, nutritional promises on foods that are too rich… The association for the defense of consumers and users CLCV calls on Wednesday for better supervision of industrial practices on packaging consumer products. The association hasscrutinized the packaging and composition of nearly 900 products” in five years, from 2017 to 2021. Whatever the product concerned, breakfast cereals, beef dishes, breaded fish, biscuits, vegetarian products, energy drinks, yogurts, the association has identified practices “that mislead the consumer“.
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These are, for example,beef ravioli that only have 4% beef“, or a dairy product displaying a beautiful fruit on its packaging when it does not contain any”only a very small or even non-existent quantity“, notes the association, which also alerted on the”nutritional or health claims», via for example the use of terms such as «detox“. “As for the origin of the ingredients, it very often remains unknown despite the many French flags that we have noted but which in fact indicate the place of packaging or manufacture.“, Still regrets the CLCV, which finally alerts on certain products for children “very sweet, greasy, salty and full of additives“.
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More transparency and less additives
How to improve consumer information? The association asks in particularthe establishment of minimum thresholds of ingredients to be able to highlight their images“, as well as'”better supervision of the use of nutrition and health claims“. She further judgesimportant to establish maximum amounts of additives, flavourings, salt, fat and sugar in children’s products“, encouraging the industrialists, “without waiting for binding regulations», to use fewer additives and flavorings and to be more transparent about the origin of the products.
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“Regarding the practices of manufacturers, we have noted, following our surveys, improvements in the recipe of certain products, deletions of mentions, the display of the Nutri-Score which was not displayed before…“, explains to AFP Lisa Faulet, scientific and food manager of the association. But these changesare unfortunately not generalized to all products since they are voluntary initiatives of certain brands“, she continues, calling for “go further at the regulatory level“.