I just checked our favorite brand of raisins to see if they were American.
It was such a relief when I found out they are from Chile.
So it is absolutely possible to get high quality raisins that are not from California.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Buy European
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Isn’t that fair? They tell you exactly what the star is based on.
How would you do it with a product with multiple ingredients from a cross the world?
“This product is made from over x% European ingredients.”
If the idea is to avoid American, and support European. Purchasing from a middleman European company is hardly supporting European.
Most of the money ultimately still ends up in American hands, just the tiny bit of profit added on during the final sale to the consumer remains European. Everything else goes back to America.
If I sold you a packet of bananas, and told you they're Irish bananas because it's an Irish company selling them, you'd call me a liar because obviously Ireland doesn't have the climate to grow bananas. It's the same principle.
If it's not European, don't put the star on, it's pretty simple.
Sure, but that’s not what they claim the star means. This star is better than nothing.
Hell yeah, I've yet to see anything like this in Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Lidl, COOP, etc.!
Most of these big companies know enough about their supply chains to be able to say if something is a product made majorly in Europe, typically for their anti-slavery obligations.
So while yes it’s better than nothing, it also feels like the bare minimum given they’d be able to provide Europeans with more information.
I agree with what you’re saying but trying to be as nuanced as you suggest is a lot more difficult than it seems.
There’s a lot of grey areas, and you’d need a significant supply chain tracing system to do what you suggest. If you do that you also drastically increase the cost of European goods, which is counter to the goal.
The method they are using is cheap-ish, easy-ish, and effective… -ish.
There are legal requirements for knowing the origin of foodstuffs in most liberal progressive democracies, I'm sure Denmark will have some. If a supermarket cannot discern where their foods are coming from I think there's far bigger issues at play than European star labels.
What you're suggesting is that large corporations are so incompetent, and being incompetent is profitable, that they should be left alone to continue to be incompetent. So that they can profit and we, the consumer, are told to jog on.
If they cannot confidently say an item is European then they shouldn't label it as European.
If they cannot confidently say which continent an item they expect you to eat comes from, then they shouldn't be operating.
This is key.
I'd rather not buy peanuts than have them be presented as European, simply because a European company has had them repcked and have their name out on the packaging
No, the brand is presented as European, not the product itself. They should probably rework that a bit though, at least for simple things like peanuts or bourbon.
What you're suggesting is that large corporations are so incompetent, and being incompetent is profitable,
I mean, you said it not me. This is not false.
that they should be left alone to continue to be incompetent.
Different question — it’s one of priority. If you can catch 90% of the non-European items cheaply and easily, better to do that than to catch 99.9% and raise prices so much that the European products are not competitive. They’re guidelines not strict life-and-death rules.
Lies. I love Irish bananas. They’re top tier, only beaten by their amazing pistachios.
Half star ;)
I believe this is easily solved by considering why consumers care about origin so much in these times. Namely, to boycot US. So simply indicating on the product (e.g. with a us flag) whether any part of its production chain is US-based and hence will put money in US hands, is enough for consumers to make a choice about the product.
Too bad they are too chicken shit to actually say it out loud
I also noticed it on Founder's beer. Clearly an American company. But apparently produced by a European company for the Danish market. They make amazing beers, but in sticking to Europeans ones for now.
shame