Refrigerated shelves: Good goods are also available from private labels
Photo: DPA
Reaching for the private labels of German supermarkets, such as »Gut und cheap«, »Freshona«, »Gut Bio« or »Ja« can pay off – without consumers having to fear any major losses in quality.
The Stiftung Warentest came to this conclusion in an evaluation of its food tests over the past four years, as it has now announced.
During this time, 1414 products were tested and now evaluated again.
The result: the quality ratings are comparable – they average a rating of 2.8 for brands and 2.7 for private labels.
With the latter, however, money can be saved, according to Stiftung Warentest.
The example shopping basket with the best private labels was 34 percent cheaper than the one with the best branded products.
Potato chips, mineral water and balsamic vinegar were only half as expensive.
The testers published their results in the February issue of Test magazine.
There they also compared the chains Aldi, Lidl, Edeka and Rewe.
Products from the entire range of products were tested – from drinks and meat to smoothies, coffee beans and tofu.
The private label products of these chains differ only minimally in quality.
When it comes to appearance, smell and taste, there are still the biggest differences between commercial brands and classic brands, according to the evaluation by »Test«.
On average, they are not far apart here either – 2.3 versus 2.5 as a grade.
But: »The classics more often achieve a very good and private labels more often a satisfactory.« Bad outliers, for example in terms of pollutants or germ load, can be found on both sides, but the private labels are slightly worse when it comes to germs: Rating 1.7 versus 1.5 .
mamk/AFP
