X-ray reveals Lidl cheating: discounters have to change the product
Created: 08/10/2022, 04:50
By: Lena Zschirpe
The Hamburg consumer center successfully prevailed against Lidl.
The discounter is no longer allowed to sell a product as before.
Hamburg – Products in supermarkets and discounters do not always keep what they promise.
So-called deceptive packaging can give the impression that there is much more content hidden in it than is ultimately contained.
Aldi was recently accused of such deceptive packaging.
Competitor Lidl now even has to adapt a product, as RUHR24 reports.
discounters | Lidl |
Headquarters | Neckarsulm |
founding | 1932 in Germany |
Lidl has to change the product – the consumer center has complained
Because at Lidl, a muesli pack is said to have not been sufficiently filled.
“With this product, 400 grams of muesli are spread over a little more than half of the can.
The rest of the pack remains empty,” according to the consumer advice center in Hamburg.
The consumer advocates clearly see this as a deception of the customers.
In addition, such deceptive packages are an additional and, above all, unnecessary burden on the environment, as they waste valuable resources - the Hamburg consumer advice center therefore complained after an unsuccessful warning against this questionable occurrence.
Lidl collects gossip from consumer advice center and has to let air out of muesli
And with consequences: The two parties have agreed on a settlement.
Accordingly, Lidl is no longer allowed to sell muesli with very little content, as reported by
Lebensmittel Zeitung (LZ)
.
That means: the oversized packs for discounter muesli will soon be history.
In this case, Lidl issued a cease-and-desist declaration under penalty of prosecution.
Means: If the discounter sells the muesli again with too little content, there is a risk of a penalty.
The complaint was withdrawn by the consumer advice center after the settlement.
60 percent less content than specified: Lidl muesli is criticized
But how did this error come about in the first place?
In response to complaints from consumers, the Hamburg consumer advice center commissioned X-rays of the muesli packs.
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An X-ray shows: Lidl only fills its muesli packs halfway.
© Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg/GSI - Society for Welding Technology International mbH - SLV Fellbach
Among other things, it became clear that the low and incorrectly specified filling quantity could not have been caused by errors in production.
The packaging wasn't even 60 percent full - that's particularly low if you take into account the "shaking up" of the content during production.
Lidl is only allowed to sell muesli until November – discounters should not waste anything
Lidl now has a so-called use-by period until the end of November in order to continue selling the defective packaging.
Because the consumer center also makes it clear: food waste is out of the question.
"We don't want the cereals to end up in the garbage just because the pack isn't full enough," says Armin Valet, head of the Food and Nutrition department at the Hamburg Consumer Advice Centre.
That could be fine with the discounter, because Lidl is campaigning against food waste with an offer.
With the so-called “rescuer bag”, fruit and vegetables that are no longer perfect should reach households cheaply.
According to the current state of knowledge, Lidl has already reacted and is now having the muesli can filled with 470 grams instead of 400 grams – but it is unclear whether the price has also changed.
