Web platforms that allow online grocery shopping are still too often a jungle. Consumers are deprived of essential information, as well as mandatory under the Food Information Regulation (EU) No 1169/11.
The first consumer association in Italy, Altroconsumo, dedicates to this phenomenon an investigation which analyzes the compliance of 418 food products sold on 12 ecommerce platforms. With an appeal to the competent authorities to carry out the necessary official controls.
Platforms for online shopping, unpunished illegality
The rule which requires providing on websites for online grocery shopping the same information as on the label seems optional for the managers of the numerous sector platforms. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) has over the years repeatedly denounced such unfair commercial practices. Also alerting the Antitrust, to no avail.
Unfair practices already reported by GIFT – Great Italian Food Trade – are the most varied:
– incorrect selling prices, due to missing or inaccurate indication of price per unit of measure (per kg or per liter),
– missing or illegible ingredient list, making it impossible to know the safety of food for consumers allergic or intolerant to certain substances (i.e. gluten sources) and the QUID, meaning the quantity of the characterizing product mentioned in the denomination (for example, chocolate cookies).
– missing or illegible nutritional table,
– food origin indication not communicated, even when mandatory.
Altroconsumo's investigation
The numerous violations of law found by GIFT continue unchecked, as shown by the analysis conducted by Altroconsumo on 12 online food sales platforms, divided among supermarkets, discount stores, ecommerce sites, and home delivery apps: Carrefour, Conad, Coop, Esselunga, Eurospin, Amazon/Amazon Unes, Cortilia, Eataly, Everli, Deliveroo app and website, Getir app and Glovo app and website.
‘The most compliant sites with the EU Regulation 1169/11 are those of supermarkets and that of the discount Eurospin. Also the platform Cortilia and the food delivery app Getir have proven attentive in reporting online the legally mandatory information.
The same cannot be said, however, for other sites and apps. In particular, in the case of Amazon Unes, it emerged that the information are uneven and disorganized, to the point of confusing consumers rather than guiding them. Up to the food delivery apps, Glovo and Deliveroo, which do not report the minimal information required by the regulation', explains Altroconsumo, which reported the violations to MASAF, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, 'so that measures can be taken'.
Optional information
In addition to the presence of mandatory information (under the Food Information Regulation), the consumer association searched for other useful aspects, such as:
– the publication of photographs that allow one to clearly read the information, mandatory and non-mandatory, shown on the label,
– the tacit admission of poor service, expressed with a warning that the site might provide less up-to-date information than that on the package,
– the indication of shelf life (expiry or TMC, minimum conservation period) for fresh products. The 'date marking', although not mandatory in e-commerce, allows the consumer an informed purchasing choice similar to that offered in physical stores.
Coop and Cortilia are the only platforms, among the 12 observed, to offer this information (at least for yogurt, a food included in the investigation).
Marta Strinati
Professional journalist since January 1995, she has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and magazines (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). Author of journalistic investigations on food, she published the volume 'Reading labels to know what we eat'.
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