Many wholegrain products are misleading, spot checks show

Over 25% of supermarket products labeled as wholegrain are not actually made from the complete grain of a cereal plant, according to spot checks made by the Dutch food safety board.

Producers have now been warned they are breaking the law by misleading consumers and face a fine if they fail to change the labeling or adapt their products, the government agency said on Tuesday.

In total, the NVWA looked at 190 wholegrain products on sale at the seven big supermarket chains, including pasta, crackers and biscuits. Of them, 51 should not have been labeled as such.

Among the offenders was supermarket Albert Heijn’s own brand of biscuits labeled “digestive wholegrain with wheat flour”. The same supermarket’s crispbreads were also found not to contain sufficient wholegrain flour, as were those from Jumbo.

Wholegrain contains all three elements in a cereal grain – a fiber-rich outer layer – the bran, a nutrient-packed inner part – the germ, and a central starchy part – the endosperm.

Some of the wrongly-labeled products have since been removed from sale while others have new packaging, the NVWA said.