To alleviate the damage that inflation does to your pocket, Mexicans like Great Value, Aurrera, Chedraui or Precissimo. However, although they can represent a great saving, in reality there is also a reduction in the nutrients and quality of consumption.
The private labels or own brands of shopping centers such as Walmart, Soriana or Chedraui have grown in recent years thanks to the fact that they serve the most consumed products in Mexican homes.
They tend to be cheaper, in part, because , which gives these companies greater profitability.
However, private label products may also be cheaper because they are made in smaller packages or because they contain lower quality nutrients and additives in their preparation. Here some examples.
The case of sausages and ham
In 2020, it classified the Aurrera and Precissimo brand sausages among the products whose sum of water and starch make up more than 80% of the content. I mean, only 20% is turkey or pork.
The ‘turkey sausage’ Precissimo, Soriana’s own brand, was also pointed out by Profeco for containing more chicken than turkey. The same thing happened with the presentation of 2 kilos of the Aurrerá brand and 500 grams of Great Value, belonging to the Walmart Group.
In the case of ham , Profeco classified the cooked ham of the Aurrerá brand as “economic”. But with the warning that it was the product that had the highest proportion of fat among all those analyzed in the laboratory.
Yogurt and cheese without so much milk
Along with well-known cheese brands such as Fud, Nochebuena or Zwan, in 2020 the Federal Consumer Protection Office pointed out the Precissimo and Aurrerá cheese brands for not meeting the standards they offer to the consumer.
Among the non-compliances detected in the Profeco study, the following stand out:
- Use the legend of 100% milk, when this is not true.
- Add vegetable fat instead of the percentage of cow’s milk that it should contain in its preparation.
- Lower grammage.
- Among other.
- detergents
A year earlier, Profeco also analyzed 57 presentations of packaged tuna, finding soy in 18 products, instead of animal protein.
Among the presentations with soy, in addition to the brands Tuny, Dolores, Calmex, Ke! Price and El Dorado, the Aurrerá and Great Value brands, from the Walmart group, as well as the Chedraui and Precissimo de Soriana brands were also found.
To find out the details of why supermarkets’ own brands are cheaper, Expansión consulted Walmart, Soriana and Chedraui, but at press time there was no response.
