Tesco has apologised to a customer for claiming that one of its own-brand slimming products had more than a third fewer calories than it actually contained.
Watchdog discovered that the supermarket wrongly labelled its strawberry-flavoured 'Ultra Slim' powdered shakes as having 135 calories per serving - when the correct number was actually 205.
By drinking the recommended two shakes per day, customers who bought it were consuming an extra 140 calories - equivalent to a can of Coca Cola.
Across the week it added up to 980 calories - the same as two McDonald's 'Big Macs', or six pieces of deep-fried chicken from KFC.
Alison Bartrup, from Cheshire, told Watchdog she'd been drinking the meal-replacement shakes for three weeks but had not lost any weight.
She became suspicious when she saw that shakes in other flavours had a higher calorie count on the label.
Tesco then admitted the error and offered her a £10 voucher in compensation.
In an email from customer services the company said they had identified the mistake two months ago and had ordered new packaging artwork to reflect the true number of calories.
Alison told Watchdog: "I am really annoyed that they made the mistake in the first place, but also angry that they continued to sell it when they apparently knew the information was wrong.
"There must be lots of other people like me who have been denying themselves little treats in an effort to lose weight, only to find their attempt has been ruined."
Tesco told Watchdog:
"We were notified early this year. The product should have been taken off sale and relabelled. It wasn't and that was a mistake. We can only apologise to our customers for this. This was the only product affected by this error and the product has now been removed from our shelves."
Watchdog finds Tesco mis-print calories on slimming powder
Watchdog discovered that the supermarket wrongly labelled its strawberry-flavoured 'Ultra Slim' powdered shakes as having 135 calories per serving - when the correct number was actually 205.
By drinking the recommended two shakes per day, customers who bought it were consuming an extra 140 calories - equivalent to a can of Coca Cola.
Across the week it added up to 980 calories - the same as two McDonald's 'Big Macs', or six pieces of deep-fried chicken from KFC.
Alison Bartrup, from Cheshire, told Watchdog she'd been drinking the meal-replacement shakes for three weeks but had not lost any weight.
She became suspicious when she saw that shakes in other flavours had a higher calorie count on the label.
Tesco then admitted the error and offered her a £10 voucher in compensation.
In an email from customer services the company said they had identified the mistake two months ago and had ordered new packaging artwork to reflect the true number of calories.
Alison told Watchdog: "I am really annoyed that they made the mistake in the first place, but also angry that they continued to sell it when they apparently knew the information was wrong.
"There must be lots of other people like me who have been denying themselves little treats in an effort to lose weight, only to find their attempt has been ruined."
Tesco told Watchdog:
"We were notified early this year. The product should have been taken off sale and relabelled. It wasn't and that was a mistake. We can only apologise to our customers for this. This was the only product affected by this error and the product has now been removed from our shelves."
Watchdog finds Tesco mis-print calories on slimming powder