Thilo Bode on supermarkets: “The price is no longer a benchmark for quality at all”

Thilo Bode on supermarkets
“The price is no longer a measure of quality at all”

Do we have freedom of choice in the supermarket?

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Activist Thilo Bode reveals “the audacity with which consumers are deceived” when shopping. You should pay attention to that in the supermarket.

Do people have real freedom of choice when shopping? This is one of the questions that Thilo Bode (76) pursues in his new book “The Supermarket Compass – Informed shopping about what we eat” (‎S. Fischer). He has carried out quality checks on various food groups and wants to educate consumers about genetic engineering, organic products, additives, flavors, pesticides, frozen food, seals of approval and false quality.

When researching “The Supermarket Compass”, he was particularly surprised “how comprehensively and with what audacity consumers are deceived and thus have no real freedom of choice when buying the products,” explains Bode in an interview with spot on news. “Important information is either withheld from them, misrepresented or is incomprehensible,” explains the expert.

“Price is no longer a measure of quality at all”

With his book he wants to provide consumers with information for shopping in the supermarket. His own shopping behavior hasn’t changed, he reveals: “But I’m even more annoyed by the impertinence of how we consumers – allowed by state laws – are kept in ignorance when shopping. Price is no longer a measure of quality at all.”

If you want to shop healthy and sustainably, pay attention to working conditions and keep an eye on animal welfare when it comes to meat and sausages, you theoretically have labels on the products for orientation. How helpful are these in purchasing practice? “Labels and seals of quality are of little or no help in assessing the quality of a product,” answers Thilo Bode. “Those labels that would be really helpful, such as the ‘Nutri-Score’ (formerly the nutritional value traffic light) are not mandatory for the manufacturers and are therefore largely useless.”

For his book in the supermarket, Bode took a closer look at strawberries, among other things. His advice on getting the best possible quality with fair production conditions when shopping here? “The best possible quality today consists of bland, tasteless varieties. If at all, I would only buy strawberries in season and then only from Germany, but I would find out where they come from and the manufacturer in the supermarket.”

What does the organic seal bring?

Organic food was very popular, at least before the “expensive crisis”. Bode explains that the organic seal does not guarantee comprehensive ecological production. “Beef, milk and cheese produce a comparable amount of harmful greenhouse gases as conventional products,” says the author. “Organic animal husbandry does not protect animals from painful diseases, because there is no state-mandated health protection for both conventional and organic animal husbandry. The decisive advantage of organic is that no synthetic pesticides and no mineral fertilizers may be used.”

Many people have to pay more attention to money when shopping these days. “The Supermarket Compass” states that if consumers cannot tell the quality of food, it is only rational that they reach for the cheaper products. If cheap doesn’t mean bad – will the new shopping behavior change the market in general? “I don’t think so,” said the expert. “Because the legally permitted deception of the consumer will not change. But the discounters, who offer goods that are not inferior in quality, will be able to expand their business.”

What needs to change?

Bode complains that consumers are not sufficiently informed and protected. What can and must change? “The laws must be changed in such a way that deception, health hazards and animal cruelty are strictly prohibited. It helps when consumers vent their displeasure in the supermarket. My book contains a lot of suggestions for complaints and questions,” explains Thilo Bode.

Thilo Bode studied sociology and economics in Munich and Regensburg. In 1989 he became Managing Director of Greenpeace Germany and in 1995 of Greenpeace International. In 2002 he founded the consumer rights organization foodwatch to document deception and health hazards in the food market and to uncover weaknesses in legislation.

SpotOnNews

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