Olive oil company cops fine for label claims

MOI International has had to pay two fines worth a combined $20,400 because of misleading claims it made on its product labels.

MOI International’s ‘Mediterranean Blend’ oil product was prominently labelled as ‘Extra Virgin Olive Oil’ and ‘100% Olive Oil’, according to the The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The ACCC said that it considers that by using these descriptions, MOI International represented that the oil was completely or predominantly composed of extra virgin olive oil.

However, the fine print on the side of the container revealed that the composition of the oil was in fact 93 per cent canola oil and seven per cent extra virgin olive oil.

"The term 'extra virgin' is widely understood by consumers to mean a premium product. Consumers should be able to trust that what's on the label is what's in the bottle when making purchasing decisions," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.

“Traders who mislead consumers in this manner leave themselves wide open to enforcement action from the ACCC.”

MOI International imported the Mediterranean Blend oil from a related company in Malaysia and sold three-litre tins of the oil in 2012 and 2013, according to the ACCC.

MOI International is the Australian and New Zealand in-house marketing arm of MOI Foods (Malaysia), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mewah Group.

There is no mandatory standard for extra virgin olive oil in Australia, but it is widely accepted that it is the highest grade oil obtained from the first press of the best quality olives, it is not blended with other oil and that there are no solvents or refining in the manufacturing process, according to the ACCC.

It said that in October 2012, the ACCC and Food Standards Australia New Zealand published a guide to olive oil labeling titled ‘The Good Oil’.