Nestlé is a prime example of how a corporation cleverly wants to create an ecologically clean and sustainable image - even though the manufacturer of sweets such as Kitkat or Choco Crossies is more of a case for diabetes prevention.
In a homestory, Nestlé's Germany boss Marc-Aurel Boersch said that there was no more milk on the table at home - the animal raw material that is added to many of his employer's products.
Boersch also announced that he voluntarily went vegan in January.
As luck would have it, a "secret paper" has now appeared in which Nestlé's managers are contrite about the unhealthy product range and vow to get better.
Of course, the company also supports the Nutri-Score - the five-step color scale from A (dark green) to E (red) was only reluctantly launched by Federal Food Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU).
The nutritional labeling is supposed to help the consumer to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy foods.
But the traffic light that manufacturers are allowed to voluntarily print on their products is controversial.
In the middle of last month, the board of directors of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations described the labeling of cocoa powder Nesquik with the health-suggestive light green Nutri-Score B - despite a sugar content of 70 percent - as "legal misleading".
Manufacturer: Nestlé.
Enlarge image
Orientation or misleading?
The Nutri-Score that food manufacturers are allowed to voluntarily print on their products.
Photo: Future Image / imago images
The damage to the image could be considerable.
But the chocolate multinational is relentlessly putting its own good news against it: From 2025, Kitkat should finally be climate-neutral.
What the world has been waiting for.
Thanks to the Klöckner traffic light, the discounter chain Lidl is also able to present itself as an ambassador for healthy eating. For example, your “Trattoria Alfredo” pizza gets a green “B”; however, that does not mean that it is a healthy food. In truth, that just means that other pizzas come off worse in comparison.
Others simply adjust the interpretation of the Nutri Score as they see fit. The snack manufacturer Lorenz, for example, gets an orange “D” for its products - that's actually not nice. But the company reinterprets the fiasco as "nibbling fun with responsibility". And as a sign that the company is one of the good guys, Lorenz also prints the somewhat absurd label “Often good for longer” on its products - as a “symbol against food waste”. The consumer should do what everybody does in any case: Check a food for its palatability.
Perhaps you also have a couple of Salzletten from 2005 lying around somewhere that you could crunch up in the evening.
Even if the enjoyment is limited, you are guaranteed to behave sustainably.
Heartily
Your Frank Thadeusz
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Feedback & suggestions?
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Abstract
My reading recommendations this week:
Doing something childish and benefiting from it, wouldn't each of us want that?
For example with this bacteria-absorbing slime that you can mix yourself.
Australia is a country plagued by natural disasters.
If drought doesn't wreak havoc, then it's conflagration.
In addition, down under is teeming with dangerous animals - and the great white shark patrols off the coast.
Now there is another plague that is not particularly exotic from a European point of view: mice destroy harvests, cars and household appliances in Australia.
Experts have identified an “epidemic within the pandemic”, as my colleague Detlef Hacke reports.
In the home office, a number of those affected twist their backs and get caught in a spiral of pain.
Scientists at the Ernst-August-Universität Göttingen have found out how to convict athletes who dope.
These behave in a completely different way than one would actually assume.
The first call with a mobile phone came at a time when nobody knew Steve Jobs and the company Nokia from Finland still makes its living mainly from paper and rubber products.
If you want to prepare your offspring for a trip to the sea with a children's book: My colleague Agnes Sonntag has put together some reading tips.
Quiz*
1. What is the name of the disease that experts believe is currently on the rise in society as a result of the corona lockdown?
a: Home office heart
b: Home office hand
c: Home office back
2. When was the first call made with a mobile phone?
a: June 17, 1946
b: June 17, 1956
c: June 17, 1966
3. A dangerous plague is currently plaguing Australia's farmers. What are we talking about?
a: From rats
b: From mice
c: From grasshoppers
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
These days, the
dream of wealth is
driving hundreds of mostly desperately poor people with shovels and hoes to a dry piece of land near the South African city of Ladysmith.
A shepherd had found shiny stones there that look like diamonds but are probably just quartz.
A team of geologists and mining experts should now provide clarity, but some of the lucky hunters have already sold their finds - for 6 to 18 euros.
That's not enough for diamonds, but enough for bread.
footnote
8.9
million scientists worked in research institutions around the world in 2018 - at least.
More than ever before, as a new Unesco report shows, which sheds light on the state of research and development.
According to this, spending on science rose by 19 percent between 2014 and 2018.
Above all, it is about promoting »green and digital change«.
China and the USA accounted for 51 percent of the expenditure, and the EU accounted for 19 percent.
Recommendations from science
Health: Researchers are developing syringes for cancer, heart attacks and Alzheimer's
Interview with Biontech co-founder Uğur Şahin about the promises of the new mRNA drugs
Pandemic: SPIEGEL conversation with physicist Michael Meyer-Hermann about the limits of the corona predictions
Corona: How dangerous is the Delta variant in Germany?
Archeology: New finds from late antique Trier
* Quiz answers
1.
c.
Home office back
2.
a.
on June 17, 1946
3.
b.
of mice
