Consumer protection warns against portals about nutrition

Consumer protection warns against Internet portals for nutritional advice Nutrition counseling on the Internet often more illusion than being

18/06/2013

Whether a recipe for baby porridge, the tip for a breakfast without protein or general information about „Low carb“-Diet - every day thousands of people use internet portals to get around the subject „nutrition“ to inform. But these nutritional advice portals are often neither objective nor independent, but act primarily as a promotional and sales area of ​​food companies. Therefore, advises the consumer center Hamburg urgent caution.

Nutrition advice portals at first sight often objectively and independently
Anyone on the internet looking for tips and information in the field „nutrition“ is looking for, there meets a wide range of nutritional advice portals - but here, according to the consumer center Hamburg caution: „At first glance, they want to enlighten, advise and help, but often they hide the underlying sales interests and do not objectively inform.“

Consumer Center Hamburg checks 12 portals
Nutrition portals on the Internet are therefore often more appearances than being - this is also confirmed by the Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg through a check of twelve portals on topics such as „Lactose intolerance“ or „infant nutrition“.

The consumer advocates noted that it is on websites that use terms such as „counselor“, „Help“, „Forum“ or „Center of health“ In the name of wearing, often primarily about image maintenance and product sales“, so the message of the consumer center.

Often not knowing who is behind the offer
As part of the study, the Consumer Center had examined the portals in terms of transparency, sales interest and objectivity of the content and made an interesting discovery: on six out of twelve websites was not or very difficult to see who is actually behind the offer, because either there was no information available about the provider, or they had little meaningfulness, for example, because, for example, PR agencies or clubs were listed instead. For example, according to the Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg, it was „at the site laktoseintoleranz-hilfe.de the HVG Süd Handels- und Vermittlungs-GbR specified, whose address and phone number with that of the company Omira agrees that with its brand MinusL market leader in the field of lactose-free products.“ The fact that this portal is currently no longer online, shows the relevance of the investigation - because apparently it was turned off due to the research.

Beware of offers that carry banner ads
As it is often not clear to the consumer who is hiding behind such an offer, according to the consumer advice center, users should be especially cautious about offers that carry advertising banners or links to shops for supplements. It is recommended to continue looking into the imprint to get information about the provider. But as the investigation of the Hamburg showed, this also does not help on and on - because only four operators provided information on financing and independence on demand.

Direct links for product sales at eight pages
In addition, according to the consumer advocates „at eight websites [.] the sales interest as large“ because „editorially edited content is used as a hanger with direct links for product sales“, so the information on the website of the consumer center. For example, be on the page „rund-ums-baby.de“ only advertising by Hipp switched, moreover, would the forum „Nutrition of babies and toddlers“ supervised by Hipp Parental Service.

Objectivity of nutritional counseling mostly poor
Overall, be nine out of twelve pages „the objectivity of nutritional counseling poor or severely limited“, so the hamburger, because between at first glance neutral nutrition information would „Corporations such as Danone, Unilever and Nestlé are promoting their products“. The quality of information would also vary widely, according to the Consumer Center: „From banalities and nonsensical diet tips to scientifically backed, helpful information for those affected.“

Stay critical and review pages carefully
Therefore, Karin Riemann-Lorenz, nutrition expert of the consumer center Hamburg, gives the advice to stay critical: „If you are looking for nutritional information on the net, you should take a closer look and not take everything at face value. "Instead, users should seek information about the provider in the imprint and pay attention to a well-balanced presentation of the site Provide information, because „Advertising banners, links to portals for the purchase of supplements, diet pills, etc. are often signs of lack of content balance and neutrality“, so the consumer center. (No)