If you’ve ever felt slightly duped at the supermarket shelf, you’re not alone – and now you can do something about it.
The consumer group Foodwatch has launched its annual vote to crown Germany’s most misleading food product of the year. The shamelessness of some of the nominees is frankly breath-taking.
Foodwatch, a Berlin‑founded consumer advocacy organisation, campaigns for transparency and honesty in food labelling across Europe.
Active in Germany and several neighbouring countries, for years it has highlighted the more creative ways food industry marketing misleads consumers.
Its most famous initiative is the "Goldener WindbeutelI" (which translates to 'Golden Windbag' or 'Golden Cream Puff') a tongue‑in‑cheek negative award now in its fifteenth year.
Each year, Foodwatch selects five products which come with particularly questionable advertising claims, and invites the public to decide on which is most deserving of the dubious honour.
Voting is open until July 5th, with the 'winner' announced shortly afterwards.
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The idea may sound light‑hearted, but it carries weight. The producers of past winners have been known to change their recipes, tweak their packaging or quietly drop misleading claims altogether.
The five products nominated in 2026
This year’s shortlist is a masterclass in creative marketing, and packaging trickery.
First up is Dr. Oetker’s “Airfryer Backin” baking powder, which boldly positions itself as a must‑have innovation for the air fryer age.
According to Foodwatch, however, it's just ordinary baking powder – only at more than twice the price. One might call it the triumph of branding over chemistry.
Next comes Airwaves Cool Cassis chewing gum from Mars, a more familiar example of supermarket sleight of hand. The pack has quietly shrunk from 12 pieces to 10, while the price remains the same.
It’s a textbook case of 'shrinkflation': less product, same cost and a faint hope you won’t notice.
The LaVita “micronutrient concentrate” takes a different tack by promising health in a bottle. Priced at around €100 per litre, it presents itself as a premium “natural product”.
Foodwatch points out that it is, in essence, fruit juice concentrate with added vitamins – hardly exotic, though certainly expensive.
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Then there is the Andechser Natur organic matcha mango yoghurt, which leans heavily on the trendy appeal of matcha green tea. The catch? It contains just 0.1 percent matcha. The yoghurt’s appealing greenish hue, it turns out, owes more to algae powder than to refined tea.
Finally, the shortlist includes “Oh Yeah Bear Libido” gummy sweets by Beautybears. These pastel‑coloured bears promise to add “extra spice” to your love life, courtesy of vitamins and plant extracts.
Foodwatch is unimpressed, noting that their effects are unproven – and that, at roughly 27 times the price of standard gummy sweets, one might expect rather more than sugar with ambitions.
Taken together, the five nominees illustrate a familiar pattern: clever wording, strategic omissions and just enough plausibility to pass a quick glance on a busy shopping trip.
Have your say
Anyone who feels moved to pass judgement can vote online until July 5th.
The process is straightforward. Just tick the product you think is the most outrageous and be prepared to leave an email address.
You may also encounter a little German along the way. Useful terms to know in this context include abstimmen (to vote), Verbraucher:innen (consumers), and Werbelüge (advertising lie) – a word that gets right to the heart of the matter.
And while taking part won’t transform the supermarket overnight, the awards have nudged companies towards clearer labelling in the past.
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