Edeka fights against food waste: Despite smaller sizes - consumer advice center with criticism

Edeka fights against food waste: Despite smaller sizes - consumer advice center with criticism

Edeka has been advertising products in smaller sizes since the beginning of the year. The goal: counteract food waste and reduce garbage. However, the consumer advice center assesses the undertaking critically.

According to the Federal Environment Ministry (BMUV), between 11 and 12 million tons of waste are created in Germany every year from food waste alone. In order to counteract food waste and reduce waste, the Edeka retail chain has also been offering some products since the beginning of the year not only in conventional sizes, but also in smaller packs with less content.

Under the motto “Food Waste – How to avoid food waste,” the supermarket giant advertises around 40 foods such as dairy products, salads and canned goods on its website, which are now also available in smaller packaging on the shelves of Edeka stores.

Now the Hamburg consumer advice center has examined the expanded Edeka range in more detail in 10 markets in the Hanseatic city: Although the Edeka advertising campaign was implemented with “a lot of fanfare”, in the end many promises remained unfulfilled, according to the consumer advice center website.

The introduction of smaller product sizes is actually intended to help Edeka customers shop more according to their needs, save money and reduce food waste in their household. The products are advertised in more environmentally friendly small sizes with a yellow “Small Buy” sticker on the packaging.

However, of the around 40 Gut & Günstig products that are now also available in smaller sizes in Edeka branches, the Hamburg consumer advice center only found two thirds of the promised small packs in a survey in June. On average there were only eight per branch.

In addition, around half of the smaller packs were at least 10 percent more expensive than their equivalent with conventional contents. The largest price difference in the survey was 65 percent.

The packaging of Edeka's “Kleiner Kauf” products is often only slightly smaller than products in normal packaging. The consumer advice center points out that their filling quantity is usually at least 50 percent less than that of the normal size.

This particularly applies to walnut kernels, Gouda or cooked ham. With a price increase of 65 percent, small-sized low-fat yogurt was the most expensive in the survey.

The supermarket giant justifies the increased price for smaller-sized foods by saying that these are tied to existing fixed costs - which arise, for example, from production or logistics. However, the consumer advice center expresses doubts about this declaration with regard to several products.

According to a report by Utopia.de, the Hamburg consumer advice center found during an investigation into the expanded Edeka range in 10 markets in the Hanseatic city that many of Edeka's promises remained unfulfilled. Of the around 40 smaller packs advertised, only two thirds were available in the June survey and around half of the smaller packs were at least 10 percent more expensive than the conventional size. The packaging of the “Kleiner Kauf” products was often only slightly smaller, while the capacity was at least 50 percent less than the normal sizes. Walnut kernels, Gouda and ham were particularly affected by this problem.