Do supermarkets check nutritional information is correct?

[tele_lover]

I've been eating a snack product which claims to be healthy. However, they are over-stating the product weight and i learnt the founder has history for disregarding public safety.

Their product is being sold in many shops, including Asda and Tesco.

If they dont even care about the weight I'm a concerned they're lying about the ingredients too. How would consumers check?

Does anyone know if supermarkets check the ingredients before deciding to stock items, or do they just believe what the manufacturer claims?

I'm basically wondering if I can take comfort that if the ingredients were dodgy Tesco and Asda wouldn't be selling it.

[21TonyK]

tele_lover said:

I'm basically wondering if I can take comfort that if the ingredients were dodgy Tesco and Asda wouldn't be selling it.

Short answer, yes. Unless someone is purposefully trying to circumvent their legal obligations.

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packagin...

And that's before you get to Tesco's etc

[Alex Z]

If they are overstating the weight then there will be less of a health issue by eating the snack, but to answer your question, no, supermarkets don’t have facilities to validate the nutritional information.

At the one that I worked for, the only way of doing so was to eat a bunch of snacks and see if you get fat. Spoiler…. They did.

If you believe it’s being missold by weight then complain to the retailer and trading standards, both of whom can take it up with the manufacture.

[Ham_and_Jam]

I was a technical manager at a large food manufacturer that was responsible for this information.

We supplied both our own brand and their own label into all of the big names (Tesco / Asda / Sainsburys / Waitrose / Aldi etc).

Supplying our own brand came with very few checks, and was more of a logistical and financial concern. Technical information supplied was very brief.

Supplying their own brand came with a lot of work, from the development of the product and recipe formulation to completing
complex specifications.

Longer term, product reviews with their team would also include sending samples to external third party for laboratory analysis. This would be in addition to our internal laboratory sampling and analysis.

Short answer is the supermarket own brand would be a better bet for adherence to specifications from my experience. if the manufacturer was less likely to be trusted, as the hoops they have to jump would mean they would probably never get to the approval stage.

You also say the product weight is low. Without sounding condescending, do you understand the legislation covering this? You can legally supply individual packets under the declared weight. What was the product and weight declared and received?

[President Merkin]

Not a food tech but i have had customers for years supplying own label to supermarkets. i know from experience that post the horse meat scandal, the ones I deal with, Tesco, Costco, Asda & Morrisons have been all over quality standards to the extent of unannounced visits to factories, auditing production, lab analysis and so on. I'd say in general it's taken seriously for self interest reasons.

[tele_lover]

The weight thing annoyed me, but it was this fact coupled with the owner being a douche I suddenly wondered: how can I trust them on the ingredients?! It could be 100% saturated fat.

I know supermarket own brand products are heavily checked buy weren't sure about third-party products.

Edited by tele_lover on Sunday 16th June 22:59

[tele_lover]

Ham_and_Jam said:

You also say the product weight is low. Without sounding condescending, do you understand the legislation covering this? You can legally supply individual packets under the declared weight. What was the product and weight declared and received?

I'll give an example close enough to let you tell me if they're breaking the law:

You sell boxes of 6x 100g chocolate bars but every chocolate bar + wrapper actually weighs 94g.

Surely this can't be legal?

[Sebring440]

tele_lover said:

coupled with the owner being a douche

The owner of what? The product (you). The brand? The supermarket?

[21TonyK]

I think there is more at play here than you are telling us about your "snack product which claims to be healthy".

The "founder" has a disregard for public safety, the "owner" is a "douche".

You were first concerned their products don't contain the ingredients they say they do.

You were then concerned their product could be "100% saturated fat"

Now you are concerned their products are sold under the declared and advertised weights.

And all this while the manufacturer is governed and most likely compliant with strict regulation and subject to supermarket compliance checks, audit and inspection.

I suspect your concerns are unfounded and misplaced.

Edited by 21TonyK on Sunday 16th June 23:41

[Ham_and_Jam]

tele_lover said:

I'll give an example close enough to let you tell me if they're breaking the law:

You sell boxes of 6x 100g chocolate bars but every chocolate bar + wrapper actually weighs 94g.

Surely this can't be legal?

It’s pretty much impossible to determine from the information you’ve given to say whether they are compliant or not.

It’s very likely they are packing to average weight, in which case the example you have given would not on its own cause a rejection.

The calculations are complicated and will require detailed sampling and record keeping, usually by automated check weighers.

Providing they hit the average weight over a set batch, in this case 100g, and none are below 91g then the 2 main packers rules have been met. There are other criteria, but pointless discussing here as we don’t have anywhere near enough information to determine any outcome.

This is where trading standards would request further records should they wish to investigate any potential non compliance.

I would also add that most manufacturers / packers are required to regularly calibrate and certify their weighing equipment to national standards. How accurate are the scales you have used? Are they calibrated?

Given the information you have given so far I’m not convinced they have done anything wrong. However as stated there simply isn’t enough to go on.