Healthy food watchdog Foodwatch.nl has launched a campaign against the successful Albert Heijn label puur&eerlijk (pure and fair), saying the slogan is misleading consumers.

The slogan tells consumers products are healthy, but many contain unnecessary sugar, salt and taste enhancers, the organisation says.

‘These are absolutely not products made, as Albert Heijn says on its website, with extra care for man, animal, nature and the environment,’ says the organisation in a statement. ‘They contain taste enhancers, e-numbers, animal-unfriendly meat and milk from factory farms.’

Albert Heijn includes all products with an organic, fair trade, or free-range origin in its puur&eerlijk line. ‘And that is precisely the problem. It is neither one thing or the other,’ campaign chief Meike Rijksen is quoted as saying by news agency ANP.

Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ leading supermarket chain, said in a statement the claims are wrong. ‘We deliberately opted for an umbrella brand because consumers were faced with so many labels they could not see the wood for the trees,’ the company said in a statement.