With the arrival of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, many things have changed. Among these include the use of e-commerce to purchase primary products due to the need to stay home and avoid contagion. However, this has represented a challenge for many people who do not use it or use it infrequently. And it is coupled with the distrust of using and paying through electronic means, which lots of people find tedious.
When buying food products online, it is necessary to ask yourself: what type of food am I buying, who am I buying it from and what should I check when I receive the order? “The purchase of food through the Internet is increasing. It’s comfortable, and we don’t have to leave home, we can choose from a wide range of products, compare prices, see opinions and ratings reflected by other customers”, they acknowledge from the Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs, and Social Welfare.
Where am I buying food?
A fully guaranteed security on the Internet does not exist. That is why you must learn to identify who is behind it when you buy online. In recent years, the National Institute of Cyber security has detected various frauds due to false promotions that use gift vouchers as a claim.
These are received by email or WhatsApp and redirect to a page similar to a food store, but a site created to obtain personal information from users through social engineering techniques such as name, surname, telephone number, or email address. These types of scams are known as phishing.
Tips for buying online safely
Following European legislation, establishments that sell food must include this information on the website:
- The Corporate name.
- Direction.
- Email.
- Other contact methods: contact form, telephone, etc.
- Tax Identification Number (NIF).
- It’s registration data in the Mercantile Registry.
- Precise information on the price of the products, indicating whether or not it includes taxes and shipping costs
But regular customers of online grocery stores are not exempt from falling victim to phishing. To check that you are not falling into the clutches of cybercriminals, you can be guided by the following:
- Do not trust if there is not enough information about the features of the products or you cannot find complete and precise details on prices, the guarantee, and the right of cancellation.
- Please take a good look at the offers, some can be very attractive, and not all are true.
- Be suspicious if the web page is focused on selling a single product or any misspellings or strange expressions resulting from a machine translation. Most of the fraudulent sites tend to come from abroad.
What food products am I buying?
We often get carried away by impulse and buy food without looking at its specifications. We would have to look at the sales denomination the legal description of the product. We also recommend observing the list of ingredients of packaged foods, which is presented in descending order in each product. We have to see that the first ingredients are healthy foods.
And if you need to know what you are purchasing via the web, you have to know that there is mandatory information that every packaged food store must comply with. Among them are:
- Appellation of origin
- List of ingredients
- Ingredients that cause allergies or intolerances
- Net amount
- Special storage conditions
- Name or business name and address of the operator responsible for its marketing
- Country of origin or place of origin
- Alcoholic degree, in beverages with alcohol content greater than 1.2% by volume
What if I buy fresh products? The method of shipping food purchased online must be appropriate, especially if the food is fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and other perishable products, such as dairy desserts, which require some refrigeration or have to be kept frozen. In no case should the cold chain be broken?
Conclusions
The company must guarantee that the products arrive at their final destination in good condition. The customer, for his part, has to consider that some shipments may generate additional costs. But, always, when receiving an online order, you must attend to the following, and if it is not right, claim:
- Check that the packaging is intact.
- Check if the labeling includes all the mandatory information.
- Check that the food is at the right temperature for its preservation.
- Check that the product is not expired or out of date of preferential consumption.
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