Icon: enlarge
The manufacturer Hochland promises cheese made from milk from "free range cows" - but instead of on the suggested green meadow, the animals are in the barn, where they can, however, run around.
Foodwatch finds it a consumer deception.
Photo: Foodwatch
"Milk from free range cows" - who doesn't think of cows grazing in lush green pastures?
Even more, when this milk is turned into "Grünländer" cheese that advertises a "green soul" and is sold in green packaging?
78 percent of consumers in Germany think so, as a representative survey by the consumer organization Foodwatch showed.
But they have been misled: In fact, the cows for this cheese are only kept in the barn, as it says in the small print on the back of the packaging.
They are not connected there, however, hence the "free-wheeling" marketing.
For this reason, Foodwatch is awarding the "golden windbag" contemptible prize this year to the "Grünländer" cheese from the Hochland company.
More than 65,000 people voted online for the "most brazen advertising lie" of the year - and the majority of 43 percent voted for this cheese.
Foodwatch tries to hand over the negative price to the corporate management at Hochland's headquarters in Heimkirchen, Bavaria (Lindau district), but the company refuses the price.
"Pretends a pasture idyll"
"'Free-range cows' is a pure fantasy term - Hochland gives its customers the idea of a pasture idyll and of all people who deliberately choose products from which they expect better animal husbandry," says Manuel Wiemann from Foodwatch, election manager at Goldenen Cream puffs 2020.
Foodwatch criticizes that the term is fictitious and not legally defined.
Hochland violates Article 16 of the EU basic regulation on food law, according to which "the advertising and presentation of food (...) must not mislead consumers".
The company defends itself against the allegations: "Foodwatch's criticism relates to the use of the term free-range cows, which is clearly explained on the packaging: For our brand, we only use milk from cows that can and cannot move freely in the barn at any time That is why Hochland does not consider the criticism appropriate and does not accept the 'price', "wrote a spokeswoman in response to a request from SPIEGEL.
Hochland justifies the use of the self-invented term "free range cows" with reference to its own representative survey by the market research institute GfK, according to which it met the expectations of the majority of those questioned.
However, the company did not disclose details with reference to "information relevant to competition".
Foodwatch itself points out that not tethering is not something special, but the normal case: In 2010, 72 percent of all German dairy cows were in the so-called loose stalls, according to the consumer organization.
Swimming on the health and sustainability wave
Second place in the vote for the "golden cream puff" went to "Volvic Bio Rooibos Tea" from Danone Waters, third place went to long-life "pasture milk" from Arla, and the fruit spread "50% less sugar" from Zentis followed in fourth place .
The "Be-Kind Protein Bar" from Mars received the fewest votes.
All products have in common that they are marketed as particularly animal-friendly, low-sugar or climate-friendly - and thus jump on the major health or sustainability trends in the food industry.
But that's often just a nice appearance, as the five cream puff candidates show this year:
The
Grünländer cheese
is only packaged green,
the
rooibos tea
gets its characteristic brown color mainly from the colored plastic bottle.
The
Arla dairy pasture
praised 71 percent CO2 saving, but this does not apply to the milk, but only on the packaging - but only 2.5 percent of CO2 emissions accounts.
And the health
promise of
the
protein bar from Mars
shrinks when you read in the small print that half of it consists of fat and half sugar.
That would add an orange "D" to the food traffic light, the second worst category.
The
fruit spread
actually contains 50 percent less sugar, but according to Foodwatch the product falls into the price cheat category: It costs twice as much, even though the sugar has been replaced by water.
Such misleading advertising is clearly prohibited after the ban on deception, says Foodwatch.
Article 16 of the EU basic regulation on food law states, for example, that "the advertising and presentation of food (...) must not mislead consumers".
According to Article 7 of the EU Food Information Regulation, information about food must not be "misleading", for example with regard to its "properties".
But because food monitoring has done nothing or far too little against such deceptive products for years, the consumer organization asked the food authority responsible for Hochland in Kulmbach last week to prohibit the marketing of grassland.
"Food law prohibits deception, the authorities are obliged to intervene," writes Foodwatch.
"We want the product to be withdrawn from the market or properly labeled," said a spokesman for SPIEGEL.
The consumer organization gave the bureau until September 22nd to move the company to end the consumer deception.
If it does not act against Hochland, Foodwatch wants to sue the authority.
Icon: The mirror
