Looks like it, but it’s not: ‘fake coffee’ draws attention after whey controversy

After fake milk and condensed milk, which is not really condensed milk, a powder for preparing coffee-flavored drinks sold on Amazon, by the Pingo Preto brand, drew attention on social media.

With the ingredients of traditional roasted and ground coffee, coffee pulp and flavoring, the product was nicknamed “cafake”, a union of coffee and fake. On Amazon, the 500-gram package is sold for R$ 14.99.

In the afternoon, the product was offered as “Traditional Pingo Sabor Café”. After contacting the report, Amazon began to offer the product as “Pó parapreparo de Sabor Café Tradicional Pingo Preto”.

Grupo Jurerê, owner of the Pingo Preto brand, says that the product is a compound for the preparation of drinks regulated by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and that, as a praxis of the industry’s quality process, its label was sent for verification with to the Sanitary Surveillance Directorate before the start of production of the final product.

When questioned about the possibility of confusing the consumer, she declares: “Its label is clear regarding the product name and composition, with information in the standard required by national legislation, with letters of the same size, without highlighting isolated expressions, which in no way characterizes consumer confusion.”

Grupo Jurerê adds that “the national food industry works incessantly in the research and development of products that meet food safety, the economic and nutritional needs of the final consumer, in addition to maintaining responsibility for the supply of food at the national level”.

Amazon says it is looking into the case.

The product has the description on its packaging “Powder for the preparation of traditional coffee flavored drink”. On the lower front part is written “Powder for the preparation of drinks with an artificial flavor of traditional coffee. Artificially flavored”. There is a stamp that reads “with roasted and ground Arabica coffee”.

The Procon of the state of Santa Catarina declared that the advertisement has clear and precise information to the consumer, in accordance with articles 30 and 31 of Law No. for preparing traditional coffee-flavored drinks leave consumers in no doubt.

Procon of São Paulo informed that it will notify Grupo Jurerê to provide clarification on the issues raised by the report, such as the possibility of impersonating coffee and causing confusion in consumers.

Powdered coffee was one of the products with the highest average price increase in the São Paulo basic food basket, among those evaluated in a survey carried out by Procon-SP. In July 2021, the average price of half a kilo of powdered coffee was R$9.09. In July 2022, the value was R$ 15.57, an increase of 71.29%, which has among its reasons the stable demand and the supply impacted by the weather.

In response to a Twitter user post (@RealUrso), there were comments such as “Nothing like having a coffee-flavored drink powder with milk mix in the morning to start the day”, in reference to dairy similars that have gained space with inflation. shot.