When we go shopping, we expect to find high-quality products. Even if we choose items with less-than-ideal ingredients, we at least trust that the manufacturer is honest about what's inside. Unfortunately, despite living in the 21st century, some brands still deceive consumers who simply want to shop with confidence. This was recently highlighted by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection.

The Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection, a state-owned entity responsible for overseeing the commercial quality of agri-food products and ensuring proper storage and transport conditions, inspected nearly 100 shops across Poland in mid-August. The organisation examined the contents of products and assessed their compliance with food quality regulations.

A report from the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection was released on Wednesday, 14 August, revealing the results of inspections conducted in 91 shops across Poland. According to information on gov.pl, more than half of the specialist shops inspected were found to be selling substandard coffees and teas.

The inspection involved a thorough analysis of the physical and chemical properties of 190 product batches, with irregularities discovered in 16 of them. Laboratory tests revealed that some products contained:

• Impurities such as snail shells, pebbles, plastic fragments, twigs, cement, and bird feathers.
• Unauthorised colourants in teas, including E 102 tartrazine, E 104 quinoline yellow, and E 123 amaranth.
• Undeclared ingredients, such as arabica beans in coffee labelled 100% robusta.

The audit also revealed significant issues with product labelling in shops. Out of 325 batches inspected, 167, or 51.4%, were found to be non-compliant. The majority of the products examined were sold loose. "Among these, there were more frequent errors in providing product information to consumers, with irregularities found in 55.3% of the 266 batches of loose products. For packaged products, the percentage of irregularities was lower, at 33.9%," according to gov.pl.

The inspection uncovered several issues, including:

• Absence of mandatory information, such as the list of ingredients, readily available to consumers at the point of sale.
• Unjustified labelling of products as tea, when leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant (Chinese tea), were not used in their production.
• Lack of information on the type of tea (e.g., black or green).
• Presence of undeclared ingredients, such as dried fruit, in the product.
• Absence of an ingredient that was declared either in the product name or in the list of ingredients.

Source: polsatnews.pl