Misleading product names in Aldi? 100% wholemeal bread is not 100%.

scrotist

I find this confusing. I guess it's legal, but I would like somebody to explain how it's legal.

Aldi has bread called Ballymore Crust 100% Wholemeal.

The ingredients do include wholemeal wheat flour, but also regular wheat flour.

I noticed that meat products like chicken nuggets etc. say "made with" 100% chicken breast. I guess they're not allowed to say 100% chicken breast.

Why can bread makers do it?

Here's the ingredients of the 100% wholemeal bread:

Wholemeal 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫 (60%), Water, Yeast, 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐧, Salt, Emulsifiers: Mono- And Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters Of Mono- And Diglycerides Of Fatty Acids, Sodium Stearoyl-2-lactylate, Mono- And Diglycerides Of Fatty Acids, Rapeseed Lecithin; Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed Oil, Palm Oil), 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫 (𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Preservative: Calcium Propionate; Acidity Regulator: Ascorbic Acid.

zell12

Others are similar - wholemeal bread is so called it’s made from flour using the whole of the grain (aka 100%)

zell12

Write to FSAI and ask https://www.fsai.ie/consumer-advice/food-labelling

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058372205/misleading-product-names-in-aldi-100-wholemeal-bread-is-not-100

Every loophole will be used to convince consumers that the product is healthy. You can be confident that the labelling here is legal.

However, the product is highly processed and unhealthy. No one should be eating such products.

Big Bag of Chips

I noticed that meat products like chicken nuggets etc. say "made with" 100% chicken breast. I guess they're not allowed to say 100% chicken breast.

That's because the product isn't 100% chicken breast. If it was it would simply be a chicken breast. Not a nugget. The meat part of the product is from chicken breast, but the product itself contains other ingredients. Bread crumbs, coating, oil, various preservatives etc. so in a chicken nugget that says "made with 100% chicken breast" maybe 65% of the product is chicken. The other 35% is the "nugget" ingredients.

Similarly a bread product can't be 100% wholemeal because if it was it would simply be a bag of flour. It needs other ingredients too.

Calahonda52

perhaps not even chicken

tphase

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122689731#Comment_122689731

all chicken but you probably don't want to know what parts

MayoForSam

Palm oil also an ingredient in a lot of Aldi products, not a fan even if it's meant to come from 'sustainable' sources. Cheap substitute for other more healthy vegetable oils.

magicbastarder

'made with' is a great way of making lots of claims.

you can say (for example) 'made with 100% manuka honey' even if it only forms 1% of the final product.

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122689725#Comment_122689725

Why are they allowed to say 100% wholemeal then?

Big Bag of Chips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122691715#Comment_122691715

Because they use 100% wholemeal flour along with other ingredients

Dan Steely

By using the phrase "made with 100% wholemeal" they are trying to give the impression that the flour used to make the bread is 100% wholemeal, when it's not.

I happened to be in a food factory once. Was shocked to see how they made burgers and nuggets.

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122691741#Comment_122691741

Including other kinds of wheat flour?

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122691715#Comment_122691715

I answered in second post

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122689674#Comment_122689674

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122692247#Comment_122692247

yes, but that's not the point.

if you bought pesto and it stated on the jar 'made using 100% pure extra virgin olive oil', your expectation is not that you're buying a jar which is 100% oil.

unless i've misread your question.

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122692947#Comment_122692947

The reason for my question was that @Big Bag of Chips wrote:

"That's because the product isn't 100% chicken breast. If it was it would simply be a chicken breast. Not a nugget. The meat part of the product is from chicken breast, but the product itself contains other ingredients. Bread crumbs, coating, oil, various preservatives etc. so in a chicken nugget that says "made with 100% chicken breast" maybe 65% of the product is chicken. The other 35% is the "nugget" ingredients.

"Similarly a bread product can't be 100% wholemeal because if it was it would simply be a bag of flour. It needs other ingredients too."

The point with regard to chicken nuggets, I think Big Bag of Chips was making was that if the package says made with 100% chicken breast, then that should mean that the meat part is 100% chicken breast not that the entire nugget is 100% chicken breast or, indeed, chicken.

However in the case of the bread, the package says that it is made with 100% whole wheat flour, however a closer reading of the label reveals that other wheat flour (not whole wheat) is also included.

I suppose the point I'm making is that saying that something is made with 100% of something is pretty meaningless as it is always true. The wholemeal proportion of the flour could be only 5% but "made with 100% wholemeal flour" would still be true because the portion of flower that is wholemeal is "100% wholemeal".

magicbastarder

Yep, it's meaningless but looks good on packaging.

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122689819#Comment_122689819

The point is, they don't say "made with". I wouldn't mind if that was the case.

They're implying that the flour they use is 100% wholemeal, but the ingredients show regular refined wheat flour as well.

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122695097#Comment_122695097

Consumers in theory should be smart enough to see through such trickery but the reality is the vast majority don't.

The consumer is not protected enough with current regulations around labelling. The type of bread being discussed here is junk which no one should be buying and should come with health warnings. Loads of other products the same

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122695346#Comment_122695346

I'm dying to find a decent wholemeal bread that has less than 100 ingredients.

Anything easily available in supermarkets that you would recommend?

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122695738#Comment_122695738

Good luck finding anything in a supermarket. Try a bakery but ask them what ingredients they use and then you would need to trust what they tell you.

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122698304#Comment_122698304

I got a sliced pan in the polish shop recently that was basically flour, water, yeast and salt.

Is that dark rye stuff wholemeal?

scrotist

I've submitted a complaint to the FSAI. They're investigating it.

Imagine if I sold chicken goojins that said "100% Chicken breast" and the ingredients were a mix of breast and chicken eyelid skin.

Marty Bird

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122695738#Comment_122695738

You'd be better off making it yourself very easy to make and way better for your health. All them store bought breads are all highly processed junk.

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122701968#Comment_122701968

Good for you. They are saying that it is 100% wholemeal which, to me, is simply not true according to their own ingredients list. Usually big companies are very careful about this.

scrotist

OP here. I am now opening an investigation into Lidl's bakery section. There are no ingredients anywhere but everything seems to be sourdough and multigrain etc. and sounds very healthy.

The UK recently banned them from calling their bread sour dough because it was a total scam.

There is no information on their site other than:

"If you would like more nutritional information on our bakery products, please contact our Customer Service team "

Very suspicious and probably illegal?

swampy353

What I find surprising is that the nutritional info piece is EU law, so lidl as a pan European brand should be in compliance.

Also where is the EHO reports highlighting the gaps identified?

scrotist

By the way, the reason I've reached out to Lidl is about this is because I'm on the hunt for wholemeal bread.

I saw their "brown sourdough" loaf and bought it assuming it was good and healthy being in the freshly baked section. Well, after ayting a few slices at home, yes, the bread is brown. But it looks like it was dyed brown. Didn't taste or feel or look very wholemealy. But it was brown. Anyway, I want to know exactly what's in it. Let's see if it's some kind of "caramel" dye.

tphase

I assume the 'brown sourdough' wasn't labelled 'wholemeal brown sourdough'?

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743083#Comment_122743083

No. But what does "brown" even mean? I assumed "brown" = healthy. I guess it means it has a bit of wholemeal, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, the ingredients for brown sour dough are:

Fortified Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, 12% Wholemeal Wheat Flour, 2% Fermented Wheat Flour, Semolina (Wheat), Malted Barley Flour, Salt, 0.8% Fermented Durum Wheat Flour, Wheat Fibre, Yeast, Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid.

Typical values per 100g: Energy 628kJ/150kcal; Fat 0.2g, of which saturates 0.1g; Carbohydrate 32.4g, of which sugars 2.4g; Fibre 3.1g; Protein 5.7g; Salt 0.52g.

Not much more fibre than the white sour dough which has 2.4g.

The highest fibre bread in the bakery seems to be the high fibre multiseed. Very heavily processed though:

Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, 8% Sunflower Seeds, 4% Linseeds, Wheat Gluten, Oat Grits, Wheat Bran, 2% Pumpkin Seeds, Rye Flour, Oats, Dried Wheat Sourdough, Sourdough Powder (Pregelatinised Wheat Flour, Lactic Acid), Sugar, Salt, Burnt Sugar, Caramelised Sugar, Corn Grits, Full Fat Soya Flour, Dried Rye Sourdough, Malt Barley Flour, Flour Treatment Agents: Calcium Sulphate, Ascorbic Acid; Emulsifiers: Mono- And Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters Of Mono- And Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Soya Lecithin, Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate; Whey Powder (Milk) Dextrose, Palm Fat, Raising Agent: Disodium Diphosphate; Wholemeal Rye Flour.

Typical values per 100g: Energy 1206kJ/287kcal; Fat 8.5g, of which saturates 1.0g; Carbohydrate 36.0g, of which sugars 3.8g; Fibre 8.0g; Protein 13.2g; Salt 0.90g.

swampy353

So you made an assumption that it was healthy based on it been brown and now you feel hard done by? At this point, it's sounds like you just have an issue with lidl in general.

The sourdough you picked up is brown due to the 12% wholemeal flour, sourdough due to the 2% fermented wheat. What exactly do you want?

With your previous posts, I do agree that there should be better information around ingredients and allergens.

You are going to a supermarket for bread, it will always be heavily processed, and that is across all supermarkets. If you want "healthy" go to a bakery or make your own bread.

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122751926#Comment_122751926

I actually went to a bakery yesterday. I asked them if their brown bread was wholemeal and they didn't have a clue. They probably import the dough from China premade and just throw it in the oven.

Looks like I'll have to make my own.

ongarite

When you make your own you will soon find out why the supermarket/bakery bread has these added ingredients.

The shelf life of home-made bread is <24 hours before turning to rock hard dry lump. It's why in your grandparents day, bread was made each morning every day.

Silvertap

Much better to bake your own. The house will smell great and the bread will taste nicer. Really dosnt take any longer than going to the shop and back to buy it.

wandererz

Buy a bread maker. Use your own ingredients.

swampy353

Even more likely they buy in fully formed par baked breads frozen. The same as pretty much all the supermarkets. Generally most of this product comes in from around Europe.

The people you speak to at any of the bakeries in the supermarkets don't have any training re making breads, they literally have instructions along the lines of, remove from freezer, bake for 22min at 180. Would see it as someone packing shelves not know what ingredients go into a jar of pasta sauce they sell.

Bread is a commodity for supermarkets, no different from any other product they sell

osarusan

OP, give this a go, seriously. I've made it many a time. Can obviously be made with healthier flour as well. I usually throw in extras along the lines of a handful of seeds, some chopped olives, fresh herbs, a finely dived onion.

https://pinchofyum.com/no-knead-bread

Set it up in the morning and it's ready to bake by the evening.

scrotist

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122752018#Comment_122752018

But I asked at an actual bakery, not a supermarket.

Sadb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122694435#Comment_122694435

The other wheat flour may not be in the form of flour used though, it could be an ingredient of another item added, like for example- baking powder.

Sadb

Did you ask them for the ingredients list in store? As per HACCP protocols, they have to display the allergens and so they usually have a folder available to view (this is acceptable for a bakery), this shows the allergens for each item at the very least but often has the full ingredients list.

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122753050#Comment_122753050

Yeah, you have to be careful with bakeries. A lot of bakeries don't bake from scratch and I wouldn't be surprised if some just buy items from elsewhere and put up on the shelf. If you ask and they have no clue then don't bother with them.

balanced24

regarding the chicken I think labels should say in large on the front where it’s from. So much of frozen chicken, goujons and the like are from Thailand

I prefer Irish but EU at least and sometimes forget to check the labels at the back.