The document examines grocery shopping practices in Germany, highlighting issues such as misleading packaging, unhealthy ingredient content, and similarities in product quality despite differing prices. It encourages consumers to be more aware of what they purchase, including the true value behind homemade versus ready-made meals and the extent of air in certain products. Additionally, it discusses the global sourcing of food items and the environmental impact associated with their transportation.

1. Do you know
what you buy?
Comparison of groceries
On shelves of supermarkets varieties of
products from different manufacturers pile
up. But does their enigmatic packaging deliver
everything it promises? And what information
about the content, origin and production
dosen‘t get divulged? We will show you the
tricks of manufacturers and things you can pay
better attention to on your next shopping.
All data and charts refer to the german market.
01
Homemade and low-priced
No time to cook something yourself? Though it sometimes saves at
double time half the price.
Mashed potatoes (500g)
Ingredients:
Potatoes,
Vegetable fat,
Skimmed milk
powder,
Table salt,
Milk sugar,
Emulisfier monoand diglycerides
of fatty acids,
Milk protein,
Flavour (with milk),
Antioxidant,
Ascorbyl palmitate
Ready meal
Homemade
15 min
30 min
0,54 €
1,39 €
Strawberry yoghurt (150g)
10 min
3 sec
0,49 €
0,34 €
02
Ingredients:
Yoghurt mild,
20 % strawberry
preparation
(with strawberries,
beetroot juice
concentrate,
flavour),
Sugar,
Glucosefructose-syrup
Daily consumption covered
Not everything that tastes good is also healthy, and most notably often too
much! One snack can already cover a significant proportion of the entire
daily consumption, as our comparison shows.
Crisps
175 g
Daily
consumption
fat: 82,5 g*
Apple juice
1 litre
Daily
consumption
carbs: 330 g*
carbohydrates
in sugar: 105 g
Edible fat in crisps:
61 g
* referred to a 30 years old man, 79kg, 1,78m, mostly sitting activity
03
Sold air
The pufferfish inflates if threatened in order to escape predators. In contrast
some groceries fluff up especially for you in order to pique your interest. But
what remains is nothing but air.
Knorr
Penne with broccoli
(146g)
Nimm2
Lolly
(80g)
GUT BIO
Fruit yoghurt
(150g)
60 % air
90 % air
27 % air
40 % penne pasta
10 % lollies
73 % yoghurt
04
Same meat, different price
In January 2013 a testing laboratory in Braunschweig examined different price
levels of mincemeat at Edeka on behalf of ARD. The quality differences were
so little that the conclusion was: It all originates from the same production.
Mincemeat
(per 500g)
Organic
Meat counter
Discount price
%
05
2,29 €
4,98 €
2,99 €
Brands more expensive than no-name
Discount product or brand product? One or another wouldn‘t ask himself
this question anymore, if he knew what brand producers lurk in fact behind
some „no-name products“. And thus even the very same ingredients.
Golden
Toast
Lieken AG
Grafschafter
Buttertoast
LIDL
0,55 € (46 %)
1,19 €
Frosta
frozen
paella
Gut und Günstig
Paella
EDEKA
Frosta AG
1,59 € (63 %)
2,49 €
06
Far, further, southern fruit
Thanks to globalization, you can enjoy strawberries in winter. Yet they also
come in midsummer from overseas. Below is an overview of the different
itineraries and footprints of individual products refered to the german market.
Strawberrys
JAN
FEB
MÄR
APR
MAI
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OKT
NOV
DEZ
10.000 km
5.000
Spain, Israel
Spain, Morocco, Israel
Italy, Spain, Morocco
Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain
Germany, Belgium, Netherlands
USA
Belgium, Netherlands
Israel
Potatoes
Avocados
≤ 3.200 km
≤ 9.800 km
Sugar (Beet)
Apples (Cox Orange)
≤ 400 km
≤ 18.600 km
Quellen:
www.gesumag.de/kalorien-grundumsatz-pro-tag-60
www.ernaehrung.de/tipps/allgemeine_infos/ernaehr13.php
www.vzhh.de/ernaehrung/119745/Gesamtergebnis%20Luftverpackungen.pdf
www.guter-rat.de/familie-freizeit/artikel_familiefreizeit_useite_1514355.html
www.daserste.de/information/reportagedokumentation/markencheck/sendungen/edeka-rewe-100.html
www.gofeminin.de/ich/welche-marke-steckt-dahinter-d8301.html
www.lebensmittellexikon.de
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuckerrübe
www.supermarktcheck.de
http://fddb.info
www.chefkoch.de/rezepte
www.pfanni.de
www.real-drive.de
www.luftlinie.org
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
www.ixtract.de
2013