Inside Out Nutritious Goods has been fined $120,000 and $75,000 in costs after supplying incorrectly labelled cartons of almond and oat milks to Woolworths. The milks required refrigeration below 5C at all times, but were labelled, “Once opened, keep refrigerated and consume within 5 days”.
Three products were affected and the company sold 10 batches of the affected products to Woolworths between 24 October 2022 and 12 January 2023. In 10 offences brought by the NSW Food Authority, 198,550 incorrectly labelled bottles sold, 177,881 could not be accounted for, with the charges relating to 46,494 incorrectly labelled bottles.
Justice Anthony Payne accepted the offences were “inadvertent and attributable to an honest oversight” but Inside Out had control over the causes and the potential harm from the incorrect labelling instructions was “significant”.
He found the error was a result of human error. The incorrect label was originally prepared for the company’s shelf-stable Ultra High Temperature (UHT) products but inadvertently copied across to the affected product packaging. The error was not detected at the proof-reading stage by any officer of Inside Out.
He accepted the Food Authority’s submission that the objective seriousness of the offence - “at least to a limited degree” - was impacted by its delay in implementing product recalls. The labelling error was discovered on 18 January 2023 but the staged recall didn’t start until mid-February.
The second of the 10 offences regarded a batch of products and a customer, Mr Mace, being hospitalised with botulism after drinking the affected product. His partner bought 10 one litre bottles of Unsweetened Almond Milk from the Woolworths online store on 26 November and when they arrived the following day, she stored them in the cupboard. Mace became seriously ill after consuming some of the almond milk.
Mace was hospitalised for 188 days from 8 January 2023 to 14 July 2023. He spent 147 days in Intensive Care and received a formal diagnosis of botulism on 14 February 2023.
On 25 January 2023, his partner gave two bottles of the Unsweetened Almond Milk to an infectious disease physician and clinical microbiologist at NSW Health. One bottle tested positive for Clostridium botulinum (commonly known as botulism).
Justice Payne said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Mace became ill from drinking Inside Out’s Unsweetened Almond Milk.
But he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the NSW Food Authority established Mace and his partner read or acted upon the incorrect label before storing the milk in the cupboard rather than the fridge before consuming the product. The implication being the wrong labelling did not play a part in causing the injury and illness to Mace.
“To establish causation, in the application of the common sense test, designed for the purpose of attributing legal responsibility, however, some link needs be shown between the contravention (here affixing the incorrect label), and the harm suffered,” he said.
“Whilst the evidence about the very low incidence of botulism poisoning indicates that the risk of that harm coming to pass may have been relatively low, the consequences to human health if those risks eventuated could be catastrophic. I find, however, that no actual harm was proven to be caused by any of the 10 offences.
“I have concluded that ingestion of Inside Out’s products caused serious illness to Mr Mace, and despite my finding that the injury was not caused by the offending conduct, the injury suffered highlights the serious health consequences possible by reason of the offending conduct,” Justice Payne said.
Evidence from a clinical microbiologist and infectious disease physician showed botulism was rare in Australia and internationally, with only three cased reported in Australian between 1992 and 2019, and none of those involving milk products.
“This evidence about the very low incidence of botulism poisoning persuades me that the risk of that harm coming to pass was very low. I find, however the consequences to human health if those risks eventuated could be catastrophic.”
Once the labelling error was discovered, Inside Out made changes to ensure the error couldn’t happen again. The Food Authority was satisfied with the company’s modifications to its Quality Manual and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points production flow diagram.
Inside Out also entered a guilty plea at the first available opportunity, entitling the company to a 25 per cent discount on sentencing.
“I find that Inside Out’s actions demonstrate a commitment by the company that an error of this kind never be committed again,” he said.
The maximum fine for each offence was $275,000.
Inside Out was fined $10,000 each for nine offences and $30,000 for the second offence, totalling $120,000 with 50 per cent to be paid to the NSW Food Authority. It was also ordered to pay the court costs for $75,000 and publish a corrective order advertisement in Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology’s Food Australia Journal.
NSW Food Authority v Inside Out Nutritious Goods Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 1278 (31 October 2025)
