“Quality disposal” on candyWhen there is almost no chocolate left in the chocolate muesli
Due to climate change, extreme weather and poor harvests, the price of cocoa and chocolate is becoming increasingly expensive. To ensure consumers keep picking them up, manufacturers skimp on valuable ingredients. A closer look at the packaging shows how the trick is used on the candy shelves.
Chocolate and coffee are back at the top of the list of foods that have recently become the most expensive foods. This can be seen from the inflation data from the Federal Statistical Office presented on Wednesday. Therefore, the price of chocolate candy is 21.2 percent more expensive compared to the same month last year. On average, consumers paid nearly 22 percent more for coffee. Overall, food prices only increased by 1.3 percent in the same period.
The reasons are well known: climate change, extreme weather and disease attacks are increasingly causing crop failures. The political crisis and speculative transactions increased the price of exotic coffee beans on the world market. At the beginning of 2024, the price of German imports of cocoa beans and cocoa mass will increase sharply. Compared with the level in 2021, the number has almost tripled.
Higher import costs are also visible on supermarket shelves – albeit with significant delays and in weaker form. Chocolate producers continue to increase prices little by little so as not to scare off buyers. However, consumer advocates have warned that looking at prices alone is not enough: food companies often use more subtle tactics to protect their profits.
Chocolate bars without chocolate
In Germany, it has been noticed that many chocolate bars have become ten grams lighter this year. However, elsewhere, manufacturers are also skimping on ingredients. The “New York Times” reported that US suppliers have long adjusted their chocolate bar recipes to reduce production costs. However, the increasing use of low-quality fats instead of expensive cocoa butter has meant that many brands have had to remove the words “milk chocolate” from their packaging.
German consumer advocates have coined a term for this: “Skimpflation” is the name given when valuable ingredients are saved and cheaper substitutes are used. Rarely has a case been as clear and obvious as the example in the New York Times. But a product has emerged in Germany in which the words “milk chocolate” have disappeared from the title after a recipe change, as revealed by an ntv.de investigation into the Hamburg Consumer Center (VZHH).
Product photos show that chocolate-covered raisins sold by discount chain “Action” are now being sold under the name “Milk Chocolate Style Raisins.” The new ingredient list calls for a “milk chocolate flavor” coating. As much as 54 percent of milk chocolate is replaced by, among other things, vegetable fats and cocoa mass. “Chocolate can only be made with cocoa butter or only contain a maximum of five percent foreign fat, which is completely unusual in Germany,” VZHH’s Armin Valet explained to ntv.de.
Therefore, renaming the product is inevitable, “Action” also admitted when asked by ntv.de. However, this is progress. “We have changed the composition of the product to keep it affordable at the lowest price and take advantage of opportunities to improve taste and aroma,” the press office said. The new recipe was even more popular with “Action” customers and sales increased.
Brand manufacturers are afraid of losing their image
Valet consumer advocates believe that this case has so far been an exception in Germany and is difficult to implement outside the low-cost segment. “Brand manufacturers probably won’t do this because there will be public outcry,” he said, recalling the case of juice maker Granini. Last year, due to rising prices for oranges, he reduced the fruit content in his juices so much that the drink could only be sold as “nectar”. Because Granini left the price unchanged, it remained a “fraud”, the consumer advice center said at the time.
But recipe changes are not always obvious, says Dorothee Seelhorst of the Lower Saxony Consumer Center. Sometimes there are references to “new recipes” or even “improved recipes” on the packaging – this could be a signal that it’s worth taking a closer look at the fine print. “But sometimes it’s just obvious from the ingredients list that something has changed in the product,” Seelhorst said. In cases like this, “quality dumping,” as Valet calls it, is very difficult to understand.
The “Food Clarity” portal in the consumer center is intended to ensure greater transparency. Here consumers can report foods they feel are being cheated on. Consumer advice centers check products, compare ingredients and warn manufacturers if they fail to do so. However: “We rely on consumers to point out any abnormalities to us,” stressed Valet.
“Cocoa drop” as a substitute for dark chocolate
Sometimes taste can provide the first clue, as demonstrated by a case documented on a consumer portal: According to this case, chocolate muesli manufacturers had secretly replaced real dark chocolate chunks with “chocolate drops” made from date powder, rice extract and other additives. One consumer complained that it tasted “cheap and bad”.
Consumer advocates also criticized the product. The name and name of the muesli have been slightly changed. But: “Especially when a valuable ingredient like chocolate is no longer available, a note of the change should be visible on the front page. Anything else is unclear and leads to justifiable anger.” The manufacturer itself admitted that it had adjusted the recipe “reasonably” to avoid price increases. Special efforts were made to “keep the sensory experience (taste, texture) as close as possible to the old recipe.”
The case also shows what fine art is all about: corporations want to reduce their production costs without it being known or having to be announced on the label. Most importantly, the product must still have a good taste. “Changing recipes is not easy,” Valet said. “That takes time – especially if you want to at least produce the same external quality.”
Nevertheless, Valet is hopeful that manufacturers will get better at hiding quality drops. “Especially with products that also contain chocolate and are not only made from chocolate,” the possibility of savings on cocoa will increase. “It will be very difficult to catch producers here.” Rising raw material costs have also led to increased experimentation with new compositions for sweets with a high hazelnut content. But if the price is ultimately right, customers will probably keep buying it.
