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Because of the war in Ukraine, millions of products could see their composition change for lack of sunflower oil. Replacing this oil is deemed understandable by the Foodwatch Association. What is not, however, is the lack of transparency vis-à-vis the consumer.
Indeed, manufacturers and industrialists have asked to derogate from the law, by postponing the change of labels. Thus, the user would not be immediately aware of these modifications, which seems unacceptable to Foodwatch.
Changes that will be invisible to the consumer
Sunflower oil comes partly from Ukraine. The war in this territory has led to problems with the supply and shortage of this oil. This has repercussions on the composition of many products including sunflower in their recipe, such as crisps, chicken, cereals or baby jars. As indicated by the Foodwatch Consumer Defense Association, sunflower oil will inevitably be replaced by other oils, from rapeseed or palm.
The problem is not so much the use of other ingredients, because “the need for flexibility to avoid production disruptions is understandable”. The difficulty lies rather in the fact that the manufacturers have asked for “deductions” to exempt them from modifying the labels of their products when the composition will change.
Foodwatch calls for transparency
This is where Foodwatch tries to intervene, by asking that the consumer be clearly informed about the changes in the recipes of the food products concerned. Even if the situation is understood, on the other hand, it is the duty of manufacturers to show clarity to their buyers.
Indeed, as required by the non-governmental organization, “we demand that manufacturers and distributors undertake to inform us clearly on the shelves and online, for each product, transparently and without delay. We want to know about these ingredient changes, their duration and rationale”.
To do this, Foodwatch has launched a petition aimed at food industry associations, major brands (Danone, Nestlé, etc.) and well-known food store chains (Intermarché, Carrefour, etc.). In order to claimour right to know”, Foodwatch explains that “this information must be available to everyone at the time of the act of purchase, for each product, on supermarket shelves, as well as on your sites, social networks and on online sales sites.”