“Philadelphia” brand “light spreadable cream cheese” was recently replaced in our Woolworths supermarket by “Spreadable light cream cheese” with deceptively similar plastic tubs bearing the Woolworth logo. The contents are less healthy.
The Philadelphia brand which claims 40% less fat has 13.7g per 100g. The new tub label claims 50% less fat but actually has less than the Woolworths labelled tubs - 14.6g per 100g. More fat despite implying less!
Worse is salt: 324g per 100g for the Woolworths label v 260g per 100g for the Philadelphia brand (still available at Coles). It tastes saltier too, no doubt to stimulate more consumption.
It pays to look at the fine print!
Best wishes
Ken
That claim is one of the more twisted by small print any time ‘lighter’ or ‘less salt’ comes into the labelling. The small print generally qualifies it as meaning ‘40% less fat than our regular’ or ‘40% less fat than an equivalent tub of lard’. Same for salt. ‘lighter’ and ‘less’ are thus relative terms rather than absolutes.
The Philadelphia brand still shows on the Woolies web site. Not all Woolies (or Coles) carry the same ranges as they ‘optimise’ them for localities. We have a few products the locals dropped but we can buy them in their not so far off stores. Irritating at best but it happens.
Another competitive issue is that for many lines both Cole and Woolworths carry, they offer different sizes unique to themselves, reinforcing the value of unit pricing to see which one is better value.
