Food labelling rules in NZ

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ottenpat

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Topic # 114145 10-Feb-2013 12:26
Hello This pack of sausages came home in the shopping tooday from PacknSave GI this morning. You will note the label clearly is advertising as Premium and 95% Fat free yet when I look at the nutritional panel it says 6% fat. I do not think it is actually legal to falsely advertise like this. I would have thought a store like PacknSave would known better or have the PacknSave marketers got a loophole I am not aware off. Patrick

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Reply # 758921 10-Feb-2013 12:31
g is for grams not % Systems Engineer Vodafone NZ http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

scottjpalmer

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Reply # 758923 10-Feb-2013 12:33
johnr: g is for grams not % 6g of fat per 100g of sausage is 6% where I went to school :-)

johnr

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Reply # 758925 10-Feb-2013 12:36
scottjpalmer: johnr: g is for grams not % 6g of fat per 100g of sausage is 6% where I went to school :-) Crap it is to, Should of got more sleep last night Systems Engineer Vodafone NZ http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

mattwnz

4248 posts

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Reply # 758930 10-Feb-2013 12:37
Make a complaint to the commerce commission. Last time I did they followed it up with the manufacturer.

ottenpat

64 posts

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Reply # 758936 10-Feb-2013 12:57
I actually don't think the manufacturer has actually done anything wrong and 6% fat for a sausage is still pretty good when you compare to some of the nasty bangers out there. It is PacknSave Glenn Innes that have used its poetic licence when they have slapped on their dubios label. Patrick

sbiddle

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Reply # 758942 10-Feb-2013 13:23
The issue lies with Pak 'n Save. They have a generic list of PLU numbers and somebody just decided to use the one that says 95% fat free. *Need help configuring your Linksys ATA or IP Phones for New Zealand? Check my blog post

freitasm

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Reply # 758951 10-Feb-2013 13:42
95% fat free doesn't mean it contains 5%. It means it less fat than other similar products. The problem is that marketing use this as some magical "healthier than thou" label. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

sleemanj

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Reply # 758955 10-Feb-2013 13:53
I've encountered nutritional labelling inaccuracy at P&S and Countdown. The worst was at P&S on an in-store printed nutritional label (some piece of hot food I think), I forget the details but the numbers were clearly and wildly incorrect (far more so than in this case). The countdown one was on some Signature Range sausages if I remember correctly. Moral of the story, read the nutritional information, and at least do a sanity check in your head, especially for in-store and house brand printed labels. --- James Sleeman My hobby - listing small amounts of interesting/useful hobby electronic components hardware and stuff on Trademe for cheap, all good geek stuff for the "maker" revolution ;-) Tip for Trademe addicts: install an addon for your browser to get thumbs for all listings.

joker97

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Reply # 758962 10-Feb-2013 14:00
maybe like the horsemeat saga (apparently beef burger needs to be something like 60% beef or something in some european countries hence horsemeat is ok for the rest etc) maybe 95% fat free definition is 6% or less fat haha ... someone can check if they want :p or perhaps there is no definition ...

richms

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Reply # 758978 10-Feb-2013 14:31
Or they are doing the 95% by volume or something? Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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Reply # 758988 10-Feb-2013 14:48
freitasm: 95% fat free doesn't mean it contains 5%. It means it less fat than other similar products. The problem is that marketing use this as some magical "healthier than thou" label. I think if they are claiming a certain percentage, it has to be fairly exact, but in this case it is the figures that appear to contradict one another. I think you are referring to what is often regarded as "puffery' Regarding PnS, I have had a problem with their scales accuracy in their fruit and vege dept, on their self serve printing scales. On some expensive light weight fruit and vege items, like garlic for example, you can easily get $1 difference in cost between the different scales.

ottenpat

64 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 759005 10-Feb-2013 15:18
freitasm: 95% fat free doesn't mean it contains 5%. It means it less fat than other similar products. The problem is that marketing use this as some magical "healthier than thou" label. I think that when a label(the P&S one) claims to be 95% fat free that this is the minimum requirement. i.e. It cannot contain more than 5% fat. I can label 95% fat free and have 4% or 3% fat but the rules are that they are not allowed to go above 5% to be compliant. They can prove compliance over an entire batch through the average composition with they are worried they are going to be busted on a one off test on one sausage if the are worried the batch is not uniform. Patrick

blackjack17

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Reply # 759028 10-Feb-2013 15:57
Good god, you are talking about 1g of fat here. It is hardly false advertising, it's an incorrect label, it happens, and if you do file with the commerce commission I hope they prosecute for wasting the court's time.

mattwnz

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Reply # 759033 10-Feb-2013 16:11
blackjack17: Good god, you are talking about 1g of fat here. It is hardly false advertising, it's an incorrect label, it happens, and if you do file with the commerce commission I hope they prosecute for wasting the court's time. Doesn't sound like you know the process. They will usually contact the retailer about it to correct the problem, and that is often as far as it goes. It however depends on how many other complaints they have received about similar problems. So reporting is a good thing to do, as otherwise they may not even be aware of these sorts of problems.

networkn

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Reply # 759039 10-Feb-2013 16:24
mattwnz: Make a complaint to the commerce commission. Last time I did they followed it up with the manufacturer. Over a 1% fat difference? Seriously, would he or she have opted not to buy it if it had said 6% fat? Give me a break, let the commerce commission deal with stuff that actually matters. If it had been 5% off, sure.

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