Sebastian Lege: ZDF defends broadcast against allegations

“better eater”
ZDF defends show with Sebastian Lege against allegations

by Denise Snieguole Wachter

30.08.2024, 20:22

2 mins

ZDF defends its program “besseres” with Sebastian Lege against accusations made by a journalist: The broadcaster emphasizes both the precision of the research and the informative value of the program.

In an interview published yesterday, food technologist Sebastian Lege from the ZDF program “besseresser” was accused of giving his viewers inaccurate or even untrue facts. Benjamin Cordes, author and culinary expert, accused the program of treating the topic of food technology in a simplified and insufficiently precise manner. ZDF has responded to the request of the star These allegations have now been firmly rejected.

The main accusations were a lack of distinction between different types of bread, a lack of coverage of certain topics such as technical enzymes in bread production and a simplified narrative that portrays industrially produced food as bad and artisanally produced food as good.

Read the entire review of the show “The Tricks in Toast Bread & Co” here!

interview

ZDF program “besseresser”
Is Sebastian Lege deceiving his viewers?

29.08.2024

ZDF has now responded to this criticism and stressed that the differences between the types of bread are actually addressed in the show. “We make this distinction in the film.” […]”In the title we use the commonly used collective term 'toast', which is also sometimes used by the manufacturers themselves,” says ZDF. And further: “This program examined four products in 45 minutes and showed selected tricks that were used in their production.”

Changing focus in the program

With regard to the aspect of technical enzymes, ZDF pointed out that this had already been covered in detail in another of their programs, the “big bread report”. They also emphasize that they always set a changing focus in their programs in order to cover a variety of relevant questions. For journalist Benjamin Cordes, however, the question of enzymes from the consumer's perspective on the subject of industrial bread would have been the decisive point of criticism.

The portrayal of the food industry as “evil” and craftsmanship as “good” was also rejected by the broadcaster, with reference to episodes “in which industrial products are rated positively, others in which craftsmanship tricks consumers.” This creates a differentiated picture of the food industry's products, says the broadcaster. According to Cordes, however, the Toast program does not address the differentiation: “I do not want to defend the industry or speak badly of artisan bakeries. I am just appealing to people to look at the subject of bread in a differentiated way,” says the journalist.

ZDF: Entertainment not at the expense of facts

Regarding the unclear price difference, ZDF argued that the price per pack is usually the deciding factor when shopping, so they focused on that: “For the price of 100 grams of toast bread, we could also have mentioned the price of the white bread in a box.” In the example, it is about four times as expensive: 0.19 cents. [sic] vs. 0.80 cents [sic] per 100 grams,” said the sender. However, only the price for a loaf of bread from a local bakery and a pack of toast from the supermarket was mentioned.

Finally, ZDF rejected the general accusation that the show prioritized entertainment at the expense of facts: “Fact-checking and in-depth research are part of our daily work, both at ZDF and at the commissioned production company.” The program offers a balanced mix of investigative reports and informative formats with a high entertainment value, the broadcaster assured.