Why Rama deserved the bad award according to consumers and which products were also nominated.
The
Hamburg consumer advice
center was once again looking for the “deceptive package of the year” and the spread fat Rama from Upfield won.
More than 40 percent of the participating consumers are dissatisfied with the would-be margarine.
Because not only that the hitherto popular fat spread is no longer margarine at all: hidden price increases in particular are viewed negatively.
To ensure that consumers are better protected from hidden price increases in the future, as in the case of Rama, the
Hamburg consumer advice
center is demanding appropriate measures from the legislature.
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Consumer advice center chooses Rama to be the "deceptive package of the year" and files a lawsuit against the manufacturer
More than twice as many consumers took part in the vote for the "deceptive package of the year" compared to the previous year, a total of 34,293 people, as reported by the
Hamburg consumer
advice center .
Upfield is not a blank slate when it comes to hidden price increases: Other Upfield brands, such as Lätta, Sanella, Becel and Violife, have also reduced their filling quantities, but not the price.
For this reason, the
Hamburg consumer
advice center has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer Upfield, in which the reduced content of Sanella is to be negotiated.
As with Rama, the cup now contains 100 grams less.
+
Consumers vote Rama as the 2022 Sham Pack of the Year.
© Manfred Segerer/Imago
Statement of the manufacturer Upfield on changes at Rama
The manufacturer of the three-quarter fat margarine Rama had previously commented on
Merkur.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
and, among other things, commented on the changes in the filling quantity:
Like most food companies, we face dramatic increases in costs throughout our supply chain.
Wherever possible, we absorb these costs so that they do not impact our consumers.
However, the fact of the matter is that our products cost a lot more to manufacture today than they did a year ago and this has had an impact on our prices.
We want our products to remain as affordable as possible.
That's why we've slightly reduced the grammage of "Rama the Classic".
This change is clearly visible on our packaging.
Rama maker Upfield
The company also added that keeping the cup size the same is a short-term solution.
According to the company, if the cup size had been adapted to the filling quantity, the costs would have been even higher.
However, it is precisely this approach that has been criticized, since the content was expected to remain the same with the same packaging.
Especially when it came to baking cakes, consumers were left behind, as the
Hamburg consumer
advice center quotes:
"For years I've been baking shortbread cookies at Christmas time according to my grandmother's recipe, which also includes 500 g of margarine.
This year, the Rama pack suddenly only contained 400 g.
But I only noticed that when I was making the dough at home, so I had to reduce all the other ingredients as well.”
"I'm more annoyed by the reduced quantity than the higher price.
I didn't notice that because the packaging was the same size.
With 500 g I was able to bake two recipes.
Now I suddenly didn't have enough margarine in the house."
“Most baking recipes need 250 g of margarine, half the pack for one dough.
Now time-consuming weighing is necessary!”
“Too little Rama in the classic 500g Rama can.
I didn't notice that in the supermarket, only when I wanted to divide up my Rama while baking a cake, the Rama tin was unfortunately filled with 100 g less for the same packaging size.
The hollow space to the lid was enormous!
Only then did I look at the specified weight!”
Do you prefer margarine or butter for baking?
One solution could be, for example, to use homemade butter when baking - all you need is cream and a butter churn.
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Products that were also nominated for the negative award "Sham Pack of the Year 2022".
As
Ökotest
reports, Leerdammer, Calgon, Haribo-Goldbären and Pringles 2022 were also nominated for the "deceptive pack of the year" due to price increases and reduced filling quantities:
2nd place in Leerdammer by Lactalis: price increase from 1.99 euros to 2.49 euros, filling quantity reduced from 160 grams to 140 grams
3rd place Calgon by Reckit Benckiser: the same price of 8.99 euros, but only 46 loads instead of 50
4th place Goldbears from Haribo: the same price of 0.99 euros, but the filling quantity has been reduced from 200 grams to 175 grams
5th place Pringles from Kellogg: can size unchanged, but capacity reduced from 200 grams to 185 grams and price increase from 2.59 euros to 2.79 euros
List of rubrics: © Manfred Segerer/Imago