A reader from Genoa brings to our attention the website where Barilla promotes its ‘pesto alla genovese’ with some claims that may be qualified as misleading advertising.
The Parma-based industrial giant’s marketing has already distinguished itself for ‘over-the-top’ audacity, with some 40 outlawed comparative claims. (1) The brief analysis to follow reveals the greater complexity of the matter at hand.
1) Barilla, ‘pesto alla genovese‘?
The market survey at the time conducted by Great Italian Food Trade on pesto alla Genovese was limited to considering products with a recipe consonant with the original. (2) With special note to Conad’s ‘Sapori e Dintorni’ brand product, which is among the most popular, now joined by Eurospin.
Barilla’s so-called ‘pesto alla genovese’ was already excluded from the sample because it contains a number of ingredients completely unrelated to the original recipe. Therefore, it cannot be classified as ‘pesto alla genovese’ but rather as a ‘basil sauce inspired by… ‘. A ‘pesto-like,’ an imitation product. Here’s why.
2) Ingredient list with deception
The website of Barilla presents its similar ‘pesto alla genovese’ with five ingredients. ‘Basil, oil, cashews, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, garlic.’ The consumer is thus led to believe that this is real pesto alla Genovese and invited to purchase, with a ‘call to action‘ (‘Buy here‘) that links to the offering of that product on the various marketplace (Amazon, Amazon Fresh, Bennet, Carrefour, Cicalia).
Image ingredients
Instead, the 15 ingredients of Italy’s best-selling ‘pesto’ on the top global ecommerce site (Amazon) are hidden at the bottom of a 10-screen sequence of suggestive advertisements. Highlights of the main anomalies:
- sunflower oil (3)
- 30% fresh basil
- cashew nuts
- parmesan cheese DOP 5% (milk)
- corn fiber
- whey powder
- halls
- milk protein
- extra virgin olive oil
- sugar
- basil extract
- natural flavors (milk)
- acidity corrector lactic acid
- garlic
3) Allergens and food safety
Allergens listed in the margin of the ingredient list by way ofPrecautionary Allergen Labeling (PAL) are outlawed and qualify the food as a food safety risk.
The ‘other nuts‘ that Barilla’s ‘pesto alla genovese’ ‘may contain … in traces‘ in fact represents a category of allergenic ingredients whose identity must always be specified, as also reiterated by the European Commission. (4)
Which ‘other nuts‘ among almonds(Amygdalus communis L.), hazelnuts(Corylus avellana), walnuts(Juglans regia), pecans[Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch], Brazil nuts(Bertholletia excelsa), pistachio nuts(Pistacia vera), macadamia nuts, or Queensland walnuts(Macadamia ternifolia)? (5)
4) ‘Basil from sustainable agriculture‘?
The ‘basil from sustainable agriculture’ that Barilla boasts everywhere as a distinctive quality of its product is, on the other hand, a common feature – by law, for 10 years now (legislative decree 150/2012) – of all plant species grown in Italy for food use, as well. (6)
Barilla’s ‘pesto alla genovese’ among others, along with De Cecco’s, stood out in Ökotest’s analysis (2020) for the co-presence of the highest number of agrotoxic residues. A cocktail of pesticides, 10 active substances including deltamethrin, lethal to bees. (7)
5) Interim Conclusions
Barilla is one of the big players in the Italian food industry. It engages in numerous activities inspired by ‘sustainable development’ and yet reveals some critical issues in governance. Where, as this case demonstrates, top management is unable to control marketing euphoria within the bounds of legality.
Transparency in consumer information and the protection of consumers with food allergies cannot and should not be neglected, neither by top management nor by official control authorities. In this case ICQRF, for violation of reg. EU 1169/11, (8) as well as ASLs regarding allergens. (9)
Post Scriptum. Pecunia non olet
One notes with perplexity the recent publication of a ‘publi-redactional in collaboration with Barilla‘ devoted precisely to its (simil-) ‘pesto alla genovese’ in a historic consumer magazine, Salvagente.
Following Antitrust’s conviction of a € 25 thousand fine for the ‘certification’ ‘Zero Scams’, (10) the Salvagente now promotes among the ‘companies with Verified Products’ also ‘Boero, fixed teeth in 24 hours in clinically fit patients’.
Fake news in the food industry already proliferates in Italy, (11) but decency has a limit.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. Barilla, unfair trade practices? FT (Food Times). 3.9.17
(2) Dario Dongo. Pesto alla genovese, market survey. FT (Food Times). 9.11.17
(3) Bennet’s ecommerce site instead refers to ‘vegetable oils (sunflower, olive)’. Different batches or random news?
(4) Dario Dongo. May contain allergens, ABC. FT (Food Times). 24.6.18
(5) The exhaustive list of ‘nuts’ whose presence must be specifically declared in consumer information on food products (labels or ingredient registers and menus, for foods sold in bulk or administered by masses) is established by Reg. EU 1169/11, Annex II, item 8. Added to the list mentioned in the narrative are cashews or cashew nuts(Anacardium occidentale)
(6) Dario Dongo, Donato Ferrucci. Sustainable agriculture, the ABCs. FT (Food Times). 16.2.19,
(7) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Pesto ‘Genoese-style’ with pesticides and mineral oils, Ökotest’s analysis. FT (Food Times). 10.8.20
(8) EU Reg. 1169/11 expressly prohibits both misleading consumers about the essential characteristics and attributes (e.g., nature of the product, ingredients) of food products and attributing to the food characteristics instead common to other foods in the same category (e.g., ‘basil from sustainable agriculture‘). Article 7, Fair Information Practices, Paragraph 1, letters ‘a’ and ‘c’
(9) Dario Dongo. Controls, the role of the Health Administration. FT (Food Times). 30.10.17
(10) Dario Dongo. Fake newsin the food industry, the quibus. FT (Food Times). 8.10.18
(11) Competition and Market Authority (AGCM, so-called Antitrust Authority). Editorial Ninety, Zero Scams Initiative. Measure 1.2.22 no. 29980.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
