Madrid
Updated:
Keep
The food and beverage products that are advertised under the ‘Mediterranean’ concept, alluding to a healthy lifestyle, only reaches 13%, a study by the
Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and the
Pompeu Fabra University (UPF).
Coordinated by Mireia Montaña and Mònika Jiménezthe study analyzed 1,219 food ads of 103 products and 541 advertisements for beverages of 109 products, corresponding to broadcast in different types of media in Spain (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, internet, etc.) between 2011 and 2020.
The results showed that only 13.59% of the products advertised under the “Mediterranean” claim had a high nutritional value, according to their value Nutri-Score. As for the rest, another 13.59% had a very low nutritional value and 29.13% low; 25.27% obtained a medium nutritional value, and 19.42% had a medium-high nutritional value.
As Montaña explains, they had been analyzing the content of for food products for some time, especially those aimed at boys and girls, when, when analyzing keywords most used in advertisements, they realized that many of these products are linked to the Mediterranean diet and that creates the false sensation that they are healthy.
“According to Spanish legislation applied to , it is not strictly misleading . But the law dates back to the eighties and has great inaccuraciesin addition to being very vague in certain aspects”, points out Jiménez.
“That is why, although some of the components of these products are covered by the concept of the Mediterranean diet, in reality it is misleading , since they only have some component that is part of the nutritional pyramid of the Mediterranean diet. If you analyze the labeling, they don’t have much of a healthy product. In other words, you don’t look at the complete product », he adds.
Specifically, the food products that make the most use of the “Mediterranean” claim are fried tomatoes and sauces, followed by soups and pre-cooked food. As for beverages, 89% of the beverages that use it in the period studied are alcoholic. And it is a trend that grows every year.
“From six food products that used the ‘Mediterranean’ claim in 2011, we went to 20 in 2020. In addition, this last year only 30% of the products are considered to have a high or medium-high nutritional value. In beverages, the trend is also the same: we went from 8 beverages that used that claim in 2011 to 16 in 2020,” says Montaña.
“Unfortunately, we will increasingly find these types of claims on an uncertain basis because it is something that sells. everything natural sells», adds Jiménez.
For this reason, the researchers call for more rigorous regulation and consumer training so that they understand nutritional labels. « After all, we are talking about food and, therefore, about health. But everything in nutrition is very lax, and it shouldn’t be that way because A bad diet translates into hospital beds, obesity and disease», Jiménez concludes.