Deceptive packs of the year: These products fail

Created: 02/11/2022 11:58 am

By: Elena Royer

Deceptive packaging of the year 2021 © Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg

This year, too, the Hamburg consumer advice center has once again chosen the “deceptive package of the year”.

But is it not only the consumer but also the environment that is being cheated?

Hamburg - For 17 years, the Hamburg consumer advice center has been running a nationwide unique list of deceptive packaging, according to its website.

Hidden price increases are listed there based on consumer complaints.

The “winners” have also been determined for 2021.

Deceptive packaging: Sustainability just a marketing stunt?

Consumers cast their votes.

The prize for the "False Pack of the Year" goes to Homann's "Paprika Sauce".

More than 50 percent of the votes went to the sauce, writes the Hamburg consumer advice center.

Accordingly, Homann Feinkost GmbH would have used a design and name change to reduce the filling quantity of the product.

In addition, retailers would have even increased the price by up to 88 percent in some cases.

The product was thus the front runner among the five nominated candidates for the "deceptive package of the year 2021".

Instead of 500 milliliters, Homann would only have filled 400 milliliters of sauce per glass since 2021.

At the same time, despite the lower volume of content, the retail price has been raised.

Deceptive packaging 2021: These products take places two to four

Nestlé's KitKat collection pack took second to fourth place.

In it, the number of previously five bars has been reduced to four.

But the price stayed the same.

This is followed by Bahlsen wafers.

They were renamed "Perpetum" and the filling quantity was reduced with the same packaging.

In addition, the "Rahm Sauce" from Knorr.

It is now available in a 2-pack instead of a 3-pack as before.

However, the amount of each pack remained the same.

The wafers from Griesson - de Beukelaer took fifth place.

Their packaging has increased, but the content has only increased by three grams. In addition, the price has increased.

Packaging waste in deceptive packaging: sustainability hardly plays a role

As the Hamburg consumer advice center writes, politicians have so far done nothing against this trickery.

She therefore calls for packs to be filled to the brim, if this is technically possible.

Such a requirement would also help to reduce packaging waste, says the Hamburg Consumer Advice Center.

Sustainability seems to play hardly any role in product management, despite the manufacturers' assertions to the contrary.

Sustainability: How do the award-winning companies deal with it?

But how do the companies awarded the Cheat Packing Prize deal with the issue of sustainability and packaging?

The "green world of Homann" is available on Homann's website.

Tips for a sustainable lifestyle are given there - but you don't read about what the company itself is doing for more sustainability.

The KitKat manufacturer Nestlé announces: "The packaging of our products will be further improved with an even stronger focus on closing material cycles." The company would focus on the points "Saving packaging material", "Improving the recyclability of our products" and " Conversion from plastic to paper packaging" and the "increased use of recycling material".

The companies want to do this for more sustainability

Bahlsen announces on its website that “responsible packaging concepts that have as little impact on our environment as possible” are the goal when designing new packaging.

When designing new packaging, they would choose recycled or recyclable materials.

They would also work on reducing plastic and packaging overall.

Unilever, Knorr's parent company, has tips on how to recycle packaging.

The company's sustainability strategy also reads: "We want to and will reduce our waste and find innovative ways to reduce materials, reuse them and recycle them repeatedly in a circular system."

And at Griesson - de Beukelaer it says: "We use recycled materials in our packaging where possible.

We use FSC-certified packaging materials in which the fresh fiber content comes from responsibly managed forests.

There is still a lot to do and we are working to always go one step further than necessary when it comes to sustainability.”

All of this reads well, but it doesn't fit with what the Hamburg consumer advice center denounces.

Less content in the packs means that refills have to be bought more often, which results in more packaging waste.