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Vanilla croissants in a biscuit tin: According to testers, vanilla sugar is enough for baking
Photo: Anna Mardo / Getty Images
The good news first: If it says vanilla, then there is also vanilla in it and is not fortified with foreign synthetic substances.
This is the result of the testers from Stiftung Warentest after analyzing 42 products with vanilla, including vanilla sugar and pods.
However: The proportion of vanilla in the tested goods is sometimes shockingly low.
According to Stiftung Warentest, most vanilla pastes and vanilla extracts hardly contain any vanilla, despite advertising promises to the contrary.
They consist mainly of sugar or agave syrup, but "hardly any vanilla," said the Stiftung Warentest.
Extracts could also be "diluted as often as you like".
The Stiftung Warentest published its results in the current trade journal "test".
The testers recommended using real vanilla pods for special dishes such as panna cotta instead of ready-made products.
There are good pods at Aldi and Lidl
On the other hand, for baking, which is particularly popular in many households at Christmas time, rich vanilla sugar: The vanilla content of three of the ten sugars examined is very good or good, with organic products performing best.
According to Stiftung Warentest, on the other hand, the price of vanilla pods is no guarantee of quality: Two of the three test winners here also include two from the discounter.
According to Stiftung Warentest, there are real flavor hits at Aldi Nord (1.74 euros per two-gram pod), at Lidl (1.73 euros per 2 grams) - and from the natural food manufacturer Rapunzel (3.35 euros per 2 grams) .
Processed products are cheaper.
According to the testers, some offer a lot of vanilla - mostly the vanilla sugar from Alnatura (1.04 euros per 10 gram sachet), dmBio (0.92 euros per 10 gram), Rewe Bio (1.09 euros per 10 gram) and the extracts from Hamburgischer Genuss Kontor (3.60 euros per 10 milliliters) and from Madavanilla (3.50 euros per 10 milliliters).
apr / AFP / dpa