Tesco's and fake labels - totally legit

[Moonshine5]

Genuinely shocked.
What is the point of a fake label? AIBU

The point is to try to ensure supply chain issues don't lead to empty shelves and wasted product.

That reason doesn't make it acceptable to lie. To brand something as olive oil when in fact it is rapeseed oil

They're branding olive oil as sunflower oil which is actually rapeseed oil?

Yes it does.

They aren't "branding" anything as olive oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil. They are using rapeseed oil in some processed foods instead of sunflower oil because sunflower oil has suddenly become unavailable.

The food shortage we are about to experience, along with rising costs, makes a move like this, which prevents waste and helps keep down costs, eminently sensible and good for the public as a whole.

Why bother with labels at all? Isn't the purpose to inform? Or is to ensure supermarkets can sell fairy tales.
People have got sick from eating misleading product labels but under your theory as long as supply chains are clear that's cool. Nice.

@NumberTheory
Do you work for a supermarket?

Have you tried actually googling this properly?

1/ It isn't bottles of oil, it is products made with oil - crisps, chips, breaded frozen things etc.
2/ It is sunflower oil only, being substituted for rapeseed, palm, soybean, coconut or corn oil.

This means your crisps fried in sunflower oil may temporarily be fried in one of the other options, without the labelling changing. This is likely because changing the packaging for products each time the available oil changes is not cost effective and would result in products being off the shelves or going up in price, something the customer is particularly aware of, and unhappy about, at the moment.

Nobody is switching bottles of olive oil or products made with olive oil, for rapeseed oil.

The FSA have also done a risk assessment so you can read that and understand whats going on and how to avoid these products if you need to.

You know, instead of running off to Mumsnet with 1% of the story and looking like a bit of a tit.

www.food.gov.uk/research/food-allergy-and-intolerance-research/rapid-risk-assessment-on-the-risk-of-allergic-reactions-in-uk-consumers-if-sunflower-oil-is-substituted-with-certain-vegetable-0

The post is 100% legitimate.
Labeled as one ingredient contains a different one.
Personally attacking me for "running off" just because you agree with this practice is low.

Well why didn't you read about it properly first, before posting on mumsnet?

www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/fsa-and-fss-advise-consumers-on-substitution-of-ingredients-in-certain-food-products-to-avoid-food-supply-disruption

You've stated they're substituting rapeseed oil for olive oil - that is not happening. Kicking up a big dramatic fuss about something that isn't actually happening .. makes you look a bit of a tit!

Just avoid processed foods that are labelled as sunflower oil if you have an issue with rapeseed (most likely to be used as we produce it here in the UK) or the other substitutes.

Or would you prefer empty shelves/price increases?

Would prefer a label to not misinform. Most people are under the misapprehension that labels are used to inform which ingredients are used not which ones should be.

Aligning it with price rises is unethical.

But thats what this announcement from FSA/FSS and the supermarkets etc is about, informing you. You are not misinformed if you read it.

If you sit on mumsnet pulling bullshit out of thin air, then yeah, you're misinformed, thats on you.

It isn't lying, they have made it plain oils may be substituted. Take oven chips as an example.Some oven chips now have rapeseed oil rather than sunflower oil on them.
The manufacturers don't know from one week to the next whether they will have sunflower oil, and use rapeseed oil as a backup. However, the plastic bags with the ingredients on are ordered and manufactured in their millions in advance. Waiting for new bags to be proofed and manufactured would hold up production and add cost.
So if you want food supply to be uninterrupted and as cheap as possible, accept generic labelling.

Both the supermarkets I use have had big signs up at the entrance explaining this ever since they had to start doing it. I'm very keen on accurate labelling because I'm a coeliac, but what they're doing makes sense to me.

Surely you have heard about food shortages on the news? It's going to get much worse before we're finished in a year or twos time.

No. I work for a food bank.

Seed oils are so bad for you they should be avoided. They are fine for running engines but in the human body they destroy cells.

Sounds like the most sensible option given the circumstances. You’re not misinformed- you’ve literally been informed, so you can avoid these products if you want to.

Seed oils are so bad for you they should be avoided

Eh? Humans have been eating seeds for thousands of years they are a great source of fats for vegetarians

I sort of see where you are coming from, but they are actually being upfront. Saying they havent got time to change the whole packaging. And telling us that they have substituted a part of what you are about to eat, assuming you still want to buy it.

They are providing the information, for us to make an informed choice.

You'll have already been avoiding every single product that this information relates to, then. What's the relevance of your comment when we're discussing the replacement of a seed oil with (for the most part) another seed oil? Unless you just wanted to evangelise. Or you thought sunflower oil was made from petals…

I'm confused. Where does olive oil come into it?

The issue is:

Crisp manufacturer (for example) has a load of pre-printed crisp packets that list sunflower oil in the ingredients but they can't get sunflower oil or the price has increased so they're switching to rapeseed oil, but they're going to still use the crisp packets that say sunflower oil to avoid the cost and waste of ditching those crisp packets for new ones that list rapeseed oil on the ingredients.

Entirely sensible and a non issue IMHO.

Oddly enough I've just eaten a packet of own-brand wotsits that I know have had an oil substitution, because suppliers are doing their best to let us know wherever possible when changes have had to be made. Tasted fine, by the way.

Sometimes we just have to struggle through these terrible hardships that war can bring…