Lerum, grocery | Reprimand from the Consumer Council: – Lerum misleads consumers

At Kiwi, the Lerum juice range that contains 97 percent fruit and berries is on shelves. Images of raspberries or black currants adorn the labels. The impression is that here you are getting juice that is 97 percent raspberries or blackcurrants.

But that’s before you read the fine print on the juice bottle. Raspberries and black currants are the least abundant raw materials.

The juice is made primarily from apples, pears, and grapes. Grapes alone account for 28 percent.

This makes student and consumer Nora Tobiassen react.

– This is dirty marketing and not accidental. She says the goal is to make the consumer think there are more berries.

– When people find out, it hurts the integrity of Lerum and its brand.

Consumer Council: – It may be a violation

Nora is not the only one who responded to the juice manufacturer’s marketing of the product.

Lerum responds to criticism in this case.

– It is clear that labeling confuses and misleads the consumer. Everyone thinks the juice is 97 percent berries unless you study the label. Olaf Kaasland, professional director of the Consumer Council, says:

– This is what Lerum wants us to believe.

He believes this practice is serious and approaching is being violated Marketing law.

“(…) A commercial practice is misleading if it contains incorrect information and is therefore not true or appropriate to mislead consumers (…).», as stated in the legislation.

Strict labeling rules

The Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority enforces the marketing law, but it is The Norwegian Food Safety Authority, which oversees the labeling of food products produced and sold in Norway according to regulations. .

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority writes in a general statement that labeling, presentation and marketing must be correct, provide the consumer with sufficient information and not be susceptible to misleading.

Images, product descriptions and decoration are, among other things, part of nutritional information for consumers, explains Olga Soling, Senior Advisor at the Department of Bio-Food Safety.

Nutritional information gives the consumer expectations about content and composition and should therefore be as accurate and representative of the product as possible. There must be a connection between content and product labeling, Soling wrote.

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Lirum – very expensive with berries

Trine Lerum Hjellhaug, Managing Director of Lerum, does not respond to criticism regarding misleading marketing. She explains parts of criticism this way:

-The reason we use more raw materials in this product is also to achieve a price that most people can afford. “So we’re very proud of these products, which provide the consumer with lots of fruit and berries without added sugar, with the really good taste of blackcurrants and raspberries respectively,” she says.

Lerum notes that raw materials are listed on the front of the label (in small print editor’s note)

Nettavisen wants to answer why the product is not called grape juice?

– We can understand the question why it is not called grape juice. The answer is very simple, and it comes down to taste. The product was developed to have a distinct and distinct taste of blackcurrant and raspberry respectively, she explains:

– Calling it grape juice when it tastes like blackcurrants or raspberries would be misleading in our opinion.

But not all products in the same series follow this principle. The variant with orange only contains orange concentrate because it gives the flavor that the juice producer wants.

In other varieties, such as blackcurrant syrup (50 percent blackcurrant ed.note), sugar balances the taste in a completely different way than in juice without added sugar, Lerum explains.