Sainsbury’s admits unclear flour labelling

The UK’s second largest supermarket chain has admitted to a customer that its ‘Taste the Difference Wholegrain Seeded Flour’ is white flour, with some seeds and unrefined grain ingredients added.

In a reply to the person’s complaint, which was forwarded to the Real Bread Campaign, a customer service advisor wrote that the team responsible for labelling the product ‘could of [sic.] made this clearer on the packaging…’

Prioritising fluff over facts

On its website, Sainsbury’s listed the main ingredients simply as ‘wheat flour’ and gave the legally-required quantitative ingredients declaration (QUID) percentages of the seeds and oats added to the flour. It did not state the QUID for the wheat flakes that the company claimed were wholegrain.  

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘We believe this is yet another example of a supermarket chain prioritising marketing fluff to convince people to part with their money, over providing material facts to enable shoppers to make informed choices. Nowhere does Sainsbury’s make clear to its customers that this product is mainly highly-refined white flour or the total percentage of wholegrain ingredients.’

The customer told the Campaign: ‘I know of one person who can only eat wholemeal flour for health reasons, who had been using this flour, and was very upset when I informed her that it had no wholemeal content.’

Sainsbury's concluded its email to the customer with a non-committal ‘they will look into changing the description.’

Your choice

People wanting or needing to choose or avoid white or wholemeal flour should read the ingredients list. Wholemeal wheat flour will be listed as such, or simply as wholemeal flour. White (and other non-wholemeal) wheat flour will have the four - soon to be five - mandatory ‘fortificants’ listed after it, usually in brackets though sometimes asterisked at the end of the list.

While the word wholemeal is legally defined in the UK and its use regulated, the same doesn't apply to the word wholegrain. The Campaign continues to lobby for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards. Our proposals include legal definitions of commonly-used marketing terms, including wholegrain, freshly-baked, and sourdough.

Notes

On its website, Sainsbury’s listed the product’s ingredients as: Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Wheat Flakes, Sunflower Seeds (6%), Wheat Gluten, Oats (4%), Malted Wheat Flour (Malted Barley Flour, Malted Rye Flour), Pumpkin Seed (2%), Linseed (2%), Malted Barley Flour, Sugar.

The front of the flour bag, and the product page on the Sainsbury’s website, claimed:

‘Wholegrain seeded bread flour
Perfect for an artisan style seeded loaf
Suitable for bread machines
Top-quality bread and malt flours are blended with oats, malted wheat flakes and seeds for a fabulous nutty flavour and texture’

See also