Germany’s consumer group Foodwatch has announced the finalists in its annual Golden Windbag award, which goes to the product with Germany’s most misleading food claim of the year. The public vote will decide the final winner.
Foodwatch is a Berlin‑founded group that campaigns for transparency and honesty in food labelling across Europe. This is year 15 for the Golden Windbag award.
The finalists are
Dr. Oetker’s “Airfryer Backin” baking powder, which proclaims itself as a must‑have innovation for the air fryer age. According to Foodwatch, it’s just ordinary baking powder at more than twice the price.
LaVita “micronutrient concentrate” which sells for about €100 a liter and calls itself a premium “natural product,” but the nomination says its just fruit juice concentrate with added vitamins
Airwaves Cool Cassis chewing gum which is exactly what it says it is—only less of it. This year’s package went from 12 pieces to 10 without changing price or packaging
Andechser Natur organic matcha mango yoghurt, which advertises heavily on the trendy matcha green tea, but contains just 1/10 of a percent matcha. The green comes from algae
“Oh Yeah Bear Libido” gummy sweets by Beautybears, allegedly aphrodisiac gummies that say they offer “extra spice” to love life, but are apparently just regular gummies infused with some vitamins at about 27 times the usual price.
Last year’s winner was a Milka Alpenmilch chocolate bar that performed the amazing feat of simultaneously shrinking the candy by 10% while raising the price by a third, for an effective invisible price hike of 48%
