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Ökotester Hidden sugar in almost all food products
Hidden sugar is found in many food products. According to a recent test of the magazine "Ökotest" hidden sugar is included in almost all prepared meals. "In ready-made pizza, potato salad and Currywurst is a lot of sugar," reports "Ökotest". In their investigation, the testers exposed the tricks of the manufacturer while hiding the sugar. "If you want to do without sugar, you have to learn a lot of vocabulary", is the conclusion of "Ökotest".
In many cases, the high sugar content of food is obscured and it is difficult for consumers to understand how much sugar is hidden in the food. For example, Katjes' yoghurt gums are being advertised by ex-top model Heidi Klum with the phrase, "Everything without fat!" Here, the advertising obscures the bags full of sugar - in the Katjes case, 52 percent, according to the announcement from "Ökotest". Since the high sugar content in food has fallen into disrepute, the industry is trying to hide the sweetness of the food. Used this is mainly as a cheap flavor carrier. The experts of "Ökotest" reveal the tricks of the food industry in obscuring the sugar content.
The food manufacturers use a variety of tricks to disguise the sugar content of their products. (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com) First trick: using different sugars
First of all, many manufacturers use a simple method for the declaration of the ingredients, so that the sugar does not end up in the list of ingredients due to the quantities it contains. They use different types of sugar, which are then listed individually below in the list of ingredients. Just by looking at the nutrition declaration, it becomes clear that sugar is the main ingredient. Although the ingredients actually have to be sorted in descending order, but because many manufacturers do not simply use "sugar", but sweeten them with glucose-fructose syrup, invert sugar syrup, dextrose or sweet whey powder, for example, the various sugars are not number one, but listed, for example, in places 3, 5, 9 and 10 of the list of ingredients, reports "Ökotest".
Second trick: use of "natural sweetness"
For consumers, the phrase "only natural sweetness" sounds relatively healthy, although the experts at "Ökotest" point out that "in many cases it is not the natural sweetness of milk, vegetables or fruit, but highly concentrated, dried, partially processed powder "acts. These would serve only one purpose: To sweeten. The often used "fruit sweetness" is such an example. It is "nothing else than a mixture of fructose and glucose, which is nutritionally physiologically equivalent to table sugar", reports "Ökotest". For, also from a chemical point of view, household sugar is a disaccharide, ie a double sugar consisting of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose. Even if the rumor persists that fructose is preferable to traditional ones, "certain sugars are not healthier or better than others", quoted "Ökotest", the expert of the German Nutrition Society (DGE), Antje Gahl.
Third trick: Different names
As already mentioned, manufacturers often use different sugars, which makes it possible to place them further down the list of ingredients. Often, sweeteners are also used that are not supposed to be related to sugar. The direct term "sugar" or even the term "syrup" is clear to most consumers what it is. However, many manufacturers use sweeteners "that hide behind terms such as maltodextrin, oligofructose or dextrose," reports "Ökotest". First, consumers need to learn a variety of vocabulary in order to avoid sugar.
Fourth trick: "less fat" and "less sweet"
Sugar and fat are key flavor carriers in many ready-to-eat foods. If the content of one ingredient is reduced, it is usually necessary to add more of the other in order to compensate for the loss of taste. Therefore, the term "less fat" often means "more sugar", reports "Ökotest". Also, the award "less sweet" is far from being equated with "little sweet". Under food law, this term means nothing more than "30 percent less sweet" than a comparative food, explain the expert. Therefore, "less sweet" could mean that the product is still more than half sugar.
Fifth trick: Small portion sizes as reference quantity
The information on the content of fat, sugar or salt is usually set on the food in relation to the recommended daily amount of the respective ingredient. However, the reference quantity refers to one portion of the food, and the smaller a producer measures it, the less the proportion of the food in the total daily quantity. Thus, the amount of sugar absorbed can be easily reduced by a corresponding reduction in the portion size. "Ökotest" calls here half the pizza as a popular example to visually halve fat and salt content. Even more brazen is the common trick to print the "reference quantity for an average adult" on a food for children. According to "Ökotest", the EU reference quantity for sugar is 90 grams a day, which corresponds to about 30 sugar cubes. This statement, however, refers to the total sugar. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended eating as little as 25 grams of sugar per day (previously 50 grams), but only referring to the added sugar, while not adding milk, fruits and vegetables.
Hidden sugar in all tested products
For the current study, "Ökotest" had 34 food products analyzed in the laboratory for their sugar content, with the result that all tested foods contained lots of sugar. "Meica Curry King Genuine Meica Currywurst alone manages almost 100 percent of the stricter WHO recommendation; With a bottle of Müller Fruit Buttermilch Multi-Vitamin you even drink as much as 59.5 grams of sugar, "reports Ökotest. Manufacturers pull out all registers in concealing the sugar content. For example, Rewe promotes "Rewe Best Choice Cappuccino Type" with the "no added sugar" label, although almost half of the powder consists of sugary ingredients, emphasizing "Ökotest". Of the cornflakes providers, the sugar content has been reduced to the amount of 30-gram portions and also the reference quantity for adults was used here, for example, Kellogg's Frosties or Kölln cereal magic honey, although the vendors with colorful cartoon images specifically target children.
Discover tricks of the manufacturers
Hidden sugar is also found in salads, savory ready meals, sauces and yoghurts, according to Ökotest. In the shopping cart is usually a wide range of foods with high sugar levels make out, in which consumers expect no or significantly less sugar. The most sweetening ingredients in the test were at the Pizza Tradizionale Speciale by Dr. med. Oetker had been noted, however, the manufacturer had already changed the recipe for the pizza dough, so that the sugar content is now lower, reports "Ökotest". Also, the investigation was not aimed at giving an overall verdict, but the experts said they wanted to reveal the tricks of the manufacturers in the matter of sugar hiding. (Fp)