Six brands, highlighted by Foodwatch, are accused of altering their recipes and “manipulatively” raising their prices.

“Cheap Inflation”, a practice that involves reducing, eliminating, or replacing a component with another less expensive and/or lower quality component.

Six major brands have been singled out by Foodwatch, accused of changing the ingredients of their recipes and increasing the price per kilo of their products without warning consumers, the NGO reported in its investigation that franceinfo was able to contact on Tuesday 6 February. .

Brands on Foodwatch sites are After Eight (Nestlé), Bordeaux Chesnel, Findus, Fleury Michon, Mail (Unilever) and Milka (Mondelez). They are suspected of “cheap inflation,” a practice that involves reducing, removing, or replacing an ingredient with another less expensive and/or lower quality ingredient. This practice allows manufacturers to limit their costs while offering similar or even more expensive products.

Consumer “Double Loser”

For example, regarding the Findus brand, Foodwatch confirms that in April 2023 the brand reduced the amount of fish meat in its Bordeaux-style Alaskan pollock from 75% to 71%. At the same time, the price per kg of the product has increased by 47% after taking inflation into account. With regard to After Eight chocolate, Nestlé is accused of adding various vegetable fats, including palm oil, between 2021 and the end of 2024.

Foodwatch is therefore launching an action to question these brands and the distributors of the Fédération du Commerce et de la Distribution (FCD), Leclerc and Intermarché (non-members of the FCD) and the National Association of Food Industries (ANIA). “With ‘cheap inflation’, consumers are doubly losers”says Audrey Morris, Foodwatch’s campaign manager.

She explains that brands justify their choices by increasing raw material costs, especially against the backdrop of avian flu, grain shortages and price explosions after the war in Ukraine. “The problem is that we are under the impression that we are losing quality when the price per kilo on the shelves goes up.Audrey Morris explains. The changes in the recipes are almost imperceptible, we have less and less noble ingredients while the prices on the shelves sometimes go up by almost 50%.”