Chocolate and wine products investigated by UOKiK

2010-07-20

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has ordered the examination of 1,815 batches of chocolate products, 13% of which have failed to meet the requirements of the State Trade Inspection (PIH). The wine industry fared better, with the figure for irregularities at 6.1%.
Inspectors focused on the content of replacements for milk fats and cocoa fats in chocolate, in addition to the stated net weight of the products. The majority of irregularities were associated with exceeding the 5% limit for vegetable fats used as cocoa fat replacements.
Moreover, interesting conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of products which should, in theory, contain fruit and other ingredients. In practice it transpires that, for example, bananas in jelly and dark chocolate do not contain any bananas, coffee-whisky filling lacks coffee and wild strawberry chocolate biscuits have their fruit content replaced by apple juice.
The most common accusations levelled toward wine were that sugar levels were too high or too low and that alcohol levels had been reduced. Wine labels also contained misleading information, with “wine-based beverages” being referred to as “wine”, and red wine described by importers as white.
As a result the PIH issued 41 fines and five forfeit payments.