Don’t mess with pesto! Makers bulk out classic sauce with...bamboo
IT’S meant to be a simple mix of basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. But the pesto in your cupboard could have an added ingredient – bamboo.
Manufacturers eager to cut costs, and battling a shortage of pine nuts and olives, are adding a range of unusual thickeners to the classic Italian sauce.
Worse still, it is producers in Italy that are guilty of butchering the recipe, according to consumer group Which?.
A test of 12 own-brand standard and premium pestos made in the country found a range of additional ingredients.
All standard pestos were made with between 42 per cent and 49 per cent basil, but also contained cheaper alternatives such as cashew nuts instead of pine nuts or a mixture of the two. Olive oil was replaced with sunflower oil, and parmesan with less expensive Grana Padano and Pecorino Romano cheeses. And all of the standard pestos, apart from Waitrose’s £1.35 version, used thickeners such as nut flour and even bamboo fibres.
Standard pesto from Sainsbury’s and Tesco, both £1, and the Co-op’s £1.19 version also contained sugar. The most expensive standard pesto, from Marks & Spencer and costing £2.10, contained carrot fibres.
It might be assumed that premium pestos, which are labelled ‘alla Genovese’ relating to the sauce’s origins in Genoa, would be true to the traditional recipe – but this was not the case. All had generous amounts of basil as well as extra-virgin olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts. However, there were also some surprising extras. Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all added sugar as well as vegetable or bamboo fibres to thicken the product.
The products with the most authentic ingredients were Asda Extra Special Genovese Basil Pesto (£1.39) and Waitrose 1 Pesto alla Genovese (£2.70).
The consumer watchdog said its investigation showed that a higher price did not necessarily mean that the product would be free of unwanted ingredients and urged shoppers to check the labelling. Which? director of research Nikki Stopford said: ‘Our advice is not to assume that all pesto contains the same traditional ingredients.’
An M&S spokesman said carrot fibres helped bind the basil and oil together, improving the product’s shelf life.
FOOD firms and supermarkets are using trendy superfoods to create ‘cheat products’ that are not what they appear.
Foods such as coconuts, avocados, beetroots, blueberries and pomegranates carry a ‘health halo’, which brings with it a price premium.
Using their names and images on packs is guaranteed to boost sales.
However, a snapshot survey of bigselling products by the Daily Mail has revealed that often these superfood ingredients make up a tiny fraction of the contents.
For example, Innocent offers a Just for Kids smoothie with ‘Strawberries, blackberries & raspberries’ in a pack with colourful images of the fruit.
In fact, the main ingredients are apple, orange juice and banana and each pouch contains just one crushed raspberry and three quarters of one crushed strawberry.
Alpro Coconut, which is promoted as an alternative to fresh milk, is mostly water and only 5.3 per cent coconut milk. A more accurate description might be coconut flavoured water.
Last week, the consumer group Which? raised questions about the purity and authenticity of big-selling wholemeal bread brands.
It found that many also contained non-wholemeal ingredients such as soya flour, fortified wheat flour, fermented wheat flour and barley flour.
In fact, this is just one element of a much wider problem where products are not quite what they seem.
The best-selling baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen, which is now stocked by Marks & Spencer, has tapped in to the demand for healthy products.
It offers a Blueberry & Pear Baby Brekkie. Yet, despite the prominent use of blueberry in the name and a purple
‘Shoppers may feel misled’
pack design, 51 per cent of the product is pear. Just 16 per cent is blueberries.
Whitworths sells a Tropical Coconut Shot, yet despite the name it is 64 per cent apricot and sultanas.
Tesco sells a Vegan Peanut and Avocado burger, but it is just 6 per cent avocado. In fact, the main ingredients – after peanuts – are brown rice, soya beans, red pepper, spring onion, onion and carrot.
The Strong Roots brand sells a Beetroot & Bean Burger.
Despite the name, only 8 per cent of each burger is beetroot and there is much more bulgur wheat, potato flakes, sunflower oil and water.
Lots of fruit drinks are bulked up with cheap apple juice, but this is not clear from the names or pack designs.
A Naked brand Blueberry Smoothie is only 5 per cent blueberry puree. The main ingredients are apple juice and banana puree.
Tesco’s Summer Fruits Juice Drink is a pleasing deep red colour, suggesting strawberries and raspberries.
However, the main ingredients are water, followed by cheap apple juice from concentrate and sugar.
Strawberry juice and raspberry juice, both from concentrate, make up only 2 per cent of the drink.
Other products that emphasised their superfood content were Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice Drink, Ella’s Kitchen Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkins, Apple + Blueberries Puree, Meridian Coconut And Almond Butter, Happy Monkey Strawberry And Banana Smoothie, Arla Protein Blueberry Yogurt and Innocent brand Pomegranates, Blueberries& Acai Smoothie
EU food labelling regulations stipulate that if a product is named after a particular food, then the smallprint ingredients panel on the pack must state how much is present.
As a result, none of these firms is breaking the law.
Many argued that while the superfood ingredient might be a relatively small part of the contents, it provided the dominant flavour. Which? said that while the firms are not breaking labelling rules, there is a danger that shoppers are not getting clear information.
Alex Neill, its managing director for home products and services, said: ‘Strictly speaking, the labelling on these products does follow legal guidelines, but shoppers may feel misled to discover how limited the quantities of certain ingredients are. Manufacturers should make it easier for shoppers to make informed choices by including the main ingredients clearly upfront on the product and not just in the small print on the back of the pack.’ She added that if people see food labelling they believe is misleading, they should contact trading standards officers.