Overview

• Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg’s compilation spans around 40 everyday grocery items where makers have trimmed costly ingredients without lowering prices.
• High-profile cases include Netto’s Lieblings Nuss-Nougat-Creme with hazelnuts falling from 20% to 13%, Kaufland’s ketchup switching to single-concentrate tomato paste and Knorr’s lemon butter sauce reducing butter from 25% to 10%.
• Savencia’s Milkana cremig leicht cut cheese content from 65% to 42% while increasing butter to boost fat and consumer appeal under the label “now even tastier”.
• Consumer advocates are demanding legally binding rules for clear on-package disclosures of any recipe changes to prevent shoppers from unwitting quality losses.
• Christoph Minhoff of the Lebensmittelverband Deutschland defends the ingredient substitutions as necessary measures in response to rising raw material costs, supply chain disruptions and new regulations.