Few things rile the Aussie consumer regulator as much as unsubstantiated claims that a product is “Australian made” when it isn’t. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has just fined a manufacturer $20,400 for making fake origin and nutrition claims about a house brand juice it produced for a supermarket chain.
The juice in question was manufactured by The Real Juice Company and sold through Supabarn as a house brand product. The apple juice which claimed on the label to be “produced locally using the freshest quality Apples”, “Straight From a Farm” and “Made in Griffith” was actually produced from reconstituted apple juice concentrate from China. A cranberry juice claimed to have “no added sugar” but in fact had added sugar. Both products were withdrawn in March 2015 after the ACCC raised its concerns, along with seven other juice varieties.
The ACCC has taken similar actions in recent months over fake Aussie beer and fake Aussie honey. While there’s no doubt that we could use simpler country of origin labels, this is a step in the right direction.
Comments
8 responses to “Australian Juice Company Busted For Fake ‘Australian Made’ Claims”
All cranberry juice has added sugar because “cranberries are astringent and unpalatable” according to the head of Ocean Spray whose main product is cranberry juices.
And they get around it by mixing it with pear juice, which is very high in naturally occurring sugar.
Then there’s still “no added sugar”, and it can be 100% fruit juice.
Those comments were in a submission about a possible change in food labelling laws where “sugar added” was being proposed. They were very much against it.
Wow. Twenty thousand WHOLE dollars? That’ll show them!
For a small company that whole 20k could actually be a substantial amount. Small Australian manufacturers aren’t rolling in cash.
But they used a winking smiley face.. so that means they weren’t actually serious… so it’s all ok, right? 😉
String them up by their toes for acts of fraud. MUCH tougher penalties need to exist
And again they ask for a labelling system that already exists. If you want to display your Australian input credentials for all to see then you should become a member of the Buy Australian Logo and do just that.
BuyAustralianLogo.com.au it enables you to see just how Australian what your buying is!