“Implementation of minimum ingredient thresholds to be able to highlight their images”, “better supervision of the use of nutritional and health claims” or even establishment of “maximum quantities of additives, flavorings, salt , fat and sugar in children’s products”, here are some of the proposals of the CLCV association to improve transparency on food packaging after five years of investigation.
The association has “screened the packaging and composition of nearly 900 products” in five years, from 2017 to 2021. Whatever the product concerned, breakfast cereals, beef dishes, breaded fish, biscuits, vegetarian products, energy drinks, yogurts, the association has identified practices “which mislead the consumer”. These are, for example, “beef ravioli with only 4% beef”, or a juicy strawberry on a pot of yogurt containing very little.
Untraceable origin and false detox
“As for the origin of the ingredients, it very often remains unknown despite the many French flags that we have noted but which in fact indicate the place of packaging or manufacture”, still regrets the CLCV, which also alerts on certain products for children. “very sweet, greasy, salty and full of additives”. Finally, the association denounces “nutritional or health claims”, for example through the use of terms such as “detox”, far from the reality of the product.
“Regarding the practices of manufacturers, we have noted, following our surveys, improvements in the recipe of certain products, deletions of mentions, the display of the Nutri-Score which was not displayed before…”, explains Lisa Faulet, scientific and food manager of the association. But these changes “are unfortunately not generalized to all products since they are voluntary initiatives by certain brands”, she continues, calling for “going further at the regulatory level”.