Queensland Yoghurt Company (QYC) has paid a $12,600 penalty after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued the business with an infringement notice for failing to disclose gelatine in some of its products.
The yoghurt supplier is alleged to have failed to disclose the presence of gelatine, or the compound ingredient CFT-1 of which gelatine was a component, from at least 2 July 2019, according to the ACCC. It says QYC statement of ingredients could be false or misleading and in contravention of Australian Consumer Law.
ACCC commissioner Sarah Court said consumers rely on accurate labels when making purchases and that QYC’s failure to disclose gelatine may have led them to believe the products did not contain gelatine.
“This may be of particular concern to consumers who have chosen not to consume gelatine for dietary, religious, environmental or ethical reasons,” said Court.
“Misleading representations relating to food are a 2020 enforcement priority area for the ACCC, and we will continue to take enforcement action where necessary.”
The ACCC said it was also concerned that QYC was not “competing fairly in a market where products are differentiated by their ingredients, by being able to offer an apparently more attractive product which was represented to be free from gelatine”.
QYC has said it will amend the statement of ingredients across its products by the end of May.
Food manufacturers must comply with the Australian Consumer Law, the Food Standards Code Australia and New Zealand and the relevant state legislation which requires labels to provide accurate information regarding a product’s ingredients.
