Milk Sounding, milk powder sandwiches.

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Milk Sounding. After candy, melted cheese and mineral water, it was time for powdered milk sandwiches.

Conad and Morato brand milk sandwiches represent yet another example of Milk Sounding. The presentation of the baked good in question is very striking. As milk is referred to both in the name of the food and with an eloquent graphic representation.

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The image of a glass of milk in natural measure alongside the fateful sandwiches is accompanied by the promotional boast ‘with 20 percent milk.’ To which is added the suggestion of ‘whole milk, with a delicately sweet taste and extraordinary fluffiness.’

Consumers would have good reason to associate Conad and Morato’s milk sandwiches with the ancient memory of that authentic and distinctive bread. What the artisan baker near home used to make by putting real, fresh and genuine milk into the dough, of which there is still a trace in the rules that preside over the Single Market. But this is not the case.

Milk is not present in Conad and Morato sandwiches. They are instead made from a powder. The byproduct of a disruptive thermal process, which in fact transforms a liquid food-as is milk-into a solid. Altering its state and thus, inevitably, its original characteristics.

 

‘Milk’ is exclusively the product of normal mammary secretion, obtained by one or more milkings, without any addition or subtraction (…).

However, for a product containing milk or milk products, the term “milk” or the names (…) may be used only to describe the basic raw materials and to list the ingredients in accordance (…) with Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011.’ (1)

Great Italian Food Trade has already reported Inalpi’s ‘Fettine di Latte’ melted cheese and Galatine candy deceptive advertising to the IAP (Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline). Denouncing the illicit usurpation of the name and values associated with milk on foods that have little, indeed almost nothing, to do with it.

The case of Conad and Morato’s milk powder sandwiches is no different. In the sense that while nothing can be objected to the presence of ‘milk powder’ in the ingredient list, the reference to ‘milk’ in other parts of the label should not be allowed. Nor, more generally, in any kind of commercial information related to the food. (2)

Milk and milk powder are quite different ingredients, and the misquotation of the former is a cause of deception, to the detriment not only of consumers and competitors but also, inevitably, of the milk production chain in Italy, from the stable to the shelf. Illegal labels, as AltroConsumo noted in turn, to be eliminated as soon as possible.

Dario Dongo

(1) See reg. EU 1308/2013, establishing a common organization of the markets in agricultural products (so-called Single CMO). Annex VII, Part IV

(2) Referring to the scope of reg. EU 1169/11, and related standards. With particular attention to the general criteria provided in Article 7(Fair Information Practices), which is referred to in Article 36 below(Voluntary Food Information, Applicable Requirements)

 

Dario Dongo
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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.