Arnott's Biscuits, the largest biscuit producer in Australia, has paid $51,000 fine for giving false information on their product packaging of selected variety of Shapes that indicated the contents had 75 percent less saturated fat according to Brisbane Times.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission discovered Shapes Light & Crispy, which lists on its label to have '75 percent less saturated fat' , when in fact it is comprised of about 60 percent less saturated fat compared to original Shapes .
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said that Arnott's was comparing Shapes Light & Crispy to potato chips cooked in 100 percent palm oil which is a big deal.
Even though the company cleared up that the saturated fat contents in a fine print at the bottom of the boxes, Sims stated it was still deceiving since only 20 percent of potato chips marketed in Australia prepared in cooked in palm oil. He claimed Arnott's had taken up a "false comparator" to increase the health claim
"This is, quite frankly, deliberately misleading. Correcting it in the fine print is just not good enough. The courts have said you've got to take into account what the reasonable consumer would think when they look at the pack," he said.
The honey BBQ chicken and sea salt flavors are two of the four Light & Crispy products which had the misleading labels and was printed between October 2014 and July 2015.
The ACCC handed out five infringement notices to Arnott's since it had a contributing factor to think that Arnott's created a misleading or deceptive representation about the composition of its product which violated the Australian Consumer Law.
Arnott's has presented a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC that the company will not involve itself on the similar nature for three years duration.
Arnott's will also a corrective notice on its own website as well as in the nationally published Food Magazine.
