The Economic Times reported ‘Maharashtra FDA cracks down on McDonald’s, catches fast food major using cheap vegetable oil in place of cheese’ [23 February 2024]. The products under the gun were offerings like McCheese Burgers, Cheese nuggets, Cheesy dips; all used the term ‘cheese’ but did not qualify that they were ‘cheese flavored’. McDonalds was quick to respond on X that ‘We use only real, quality cheese in all our products containing cheese’. But news report also said that they had decided to change the names of some of their cheesy offerings: Cheesy Nuggets to Veg Nuggets, Mc Cheese Veg Burger to Cheddar Delight Veg Burger etc. That was quick action.
Some years ago Amul initiated action against Unilever’s Walls range of frozen products. Why? Simply because they were not pure milk based and were partly made from vegetable oil fats. Today Kwality Walls labels declare the product as ‘Frozen dessert’. Interestingly Kwality Walls Trixy Cheesecake frozen dessert contains natural identical cheesecake flavouring.
The question remains how much cheese is needed for you to call something ‘cheese’, I wondered. The McDonalds news made me look for brands that use the work ‘cheese’ in their brand name. The first name that popped up in my mind is the very popular Parle Cheeselings mini biscuits. When I examined their label declaration I discovered that it contained between 1 and 2% of real cheese. Yet another brand of cookies ‘Malkist’ claims to be Cheese Flavoured on their label; they too declare around 2% as real cheese.
Go on a hunt of cookies and snack bars in your local market. You will find many of them claiming to have butter, cheese, cashew nuts, fruits, almond, millets, and more such healthy ingredients. Chances are they do contain what they declare on their label, but the amount could be as low as 2% [Britannia Good Day Cashew] to as high as 10%. At a forum I remember the CEO of a large company that specialises in making millet based products saying that he insisted that every product that they claim to be millet based, with a clear declaration on the label as containing ‘goodness of millets’, should contain at least 20% millets.
I was also reminded of the ‘Bajaj Almond Drops’. That brand name is probably the most ‘honest’ brand name possible, simply because each bottle of Bajaj Almond Drops contain approximately 21% Almond oil, a bit more than a few drops I should add.
When it comes to fruits there is a law against soft drinks claiming ‘orange’ or ‘lemon’. They have to declare it as ‘orange flavoured’ or ‘lemon flavored’; check out Fanta or 7Up. Their advertising is prohibited from showing real oranges or real lemons, if they don’t contain real fruit juice. Nimbooz declares that it contains real lemon juice and hence shows real lemons while Fanta shows an illustration of an orange. When you see Katrina Kaif licking real mangoes in a Slice commercial and touting ‘Aamsutra’ remember they are doing this because the brand contains real mango juice, but only around 14%.
Let us also realise that the standing of a food brand depends on the quality of its ingredients which have to be reflected fairly on their labels. Indian consumer is now getting wizened up to read label declarations and examine ingredient claims, but I am sure action from the authorities will only sensitize the consumers more. In the future we should be seeing AI tools and QR codes that can help consumers look through the fog of label declarations. No more cheesy double speak please.
Appeared originally in Economic Times 2 March 2024