Expectation vs reality - food labels/pictures gone wrong

I tend to buy frozen meals. Bought two seperate brands of “Tuna Mornay” recently. In one, there were SIX pieces only of tuna. In the other, FOUR. The pack said "10% tuna. Surely this contravenes labelling guidelines?.

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Maybe the extra two pieces were a bonus and the 10% only refers to four pieces in a serving? Or maybe the tuna is made up of only 10% tuna and the rest some sort of generic white fish meat. You can never tell with labels sometimes.

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When I learned to cook, Tuna was the hero of the dish. If you can’t taste the tuna, it’s not a tuna moray. More than that, though, at least one company has already been polled up and fined for exactly the same offence.

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Yes the picture of the food on the packet or box is rarely reflected in the reality on your plate either!

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I suppose the food is made on bulk and then split into individual package/servings.

Doing so will mean that there is potential variance in the number pieces per packet. The original bulk mix would meet that shown on the labelling. Splitting anything creates random results, with distributions following what is called a bell curve.

Another example would be manufactured muesli where each packet would have differing nunber of sultanas, almonds etc…but the bulk blended material would have the proportions nomihated in the packaging.

If we expected all food packaged to be the same, the cost of manufactured food would increase substantially as each individal package/serve would need fo be processed/made separately. The current bulk making of processed/manufactured foods creates efficiencies and significant cost savings for the consumer.

The other thing is to be considered is percentages would be based on weights or volumes of the bulk mix, and not number of pieces in the final packaged product. I would impaging that pieces of tuna would have variable sizes…weight…volumes which also increases the level of potential variance within a packages product.

I would be concerned if it said it had tuna pieces but the final packet had none…as this would be grounds for a refund/replacement.

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Hi Tanya
Maybe when inserted the tuna content of the packet was measured by weight, not by quantity? If this is the case, you will receive the same amount of tuna in each box.

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Speaking of pre-packaged food that doesn’t resemble the picture on the box or container, one of my teenage sons tried this particular brand of cup noodles once. I’ll let you all figure out for yourselves why he hasn’t wanted them again.

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Vince they would have to be the " crappiest " looking noodles I have ever seen . Pardon the pun .:joy_cat:

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Oh dear - I’m with @vax2000 - POOdle loose in the factory maybe?

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I have mentioned this before about food especially slices bought from iga. cherry sliceit tasted nothing like cherries in fact the ingredients didnt even mention cherries. i have no idea how they get away with it.i feel like reporting them. Someone needs to do something about these manufacturers with how shonky they are.

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Its about time choice something is done to investigate food manufacturers.?

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While not people food, you might be interested in

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iga are liars about certain products i have purchased ok.i have had another look ok on the packaging of this cherry slice bought from iga ok. it has a description of “A PERFECT COMBINATION OF CHERRIES AND COCONUT AND CHOCOLATE”.and whn i looked on the ingredients not a single ingredient of cherries mentioned. It only says flours and colors that is all.This is rally just annoying me so much how they can get away from doing it. ?

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No coconut or chocolate either? Nor the word ‘flavour’ in small print?

You might take a picture of the labelling and ingredients list and post it on the Shonky 2018 Watch List thread

and send it to The Checkout at tipoff@thecheckout.net.au

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actually i wasn’t looking for the chocolate in the ingredients but i have looked and it is a lie to there is no chocolate listed in the ingredients.

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it says on the label “taste the difference” maybe it should say when you taste there products you will throw up cos i spat it out what i tried to eat it was disgusting. its like they have tried using a mixture of flavors to give a cherry taste and color for the cherries. and im not so sure about the chocolate how they made that look like chocolate.?

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ive tried some iga other slices and there caramel slice is average the hedgehog slice isn’t that great either. some of there cakes are alright whilst others are worse.but that cherry slice is the worst they promote it as if it is a specialist product. I think they need to rewrite the ingredients for sure. maybe ill stick to a traditional baker when buying some of those slices. or make it myself.

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@passerbye123, definitely send us some pictures of the labels in question if you get the chance :thumbsup:

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Hi there sorry i was not able to type any writing there but i am just able to read the ingredients on the packet ok as i am sure you will be able to also. Only to find out there is no listing of cherries at all when clearly the label says cherry ripe slice i know the label is upside down but anyone can read that. Im not sure what the law states in regards to misleading consumers but im sure something may be able to be done. you are more than welcome to visit any iga store and look for that brand of there slices and check it out yourself and taste it. i actually threw it out in disgust normally i would at least eat the product but that was so bad ok. i feel that they are using a particular flavor to get the taste which tastes nothing like cherries. and for the color maybe it is the same. if you look carefully it does list the flavors and colors listed.? I would be very interested to know what the substitute they are using.Is it possible for choice to do some testing if you were to get the ingredients and maybe replicate something similar unless choice can test the additives.?also the chocolate which was suppose to be on top was not listed in the ingredients.Once again i have no idea what the topping or icing was made out of. I just do not know how these food manufacturers get away with this.

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