Bevco corrects misleading country of origin fruit juice labels
Fruit juice producer Bevco Pty Ltd will change its labelling of its products following an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation.
Bevco had labelled a number of its fruit juice beverage products as "100% Australian Made & Owned" although the products predominantly consisted of imported juice.
"Bevco used the term on its Bevco and Macquarie Valley branded fruit juice products," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today. "But some of these products contained 99.9 per cent imported reconstituted juice.
"The ACCC believes the reconstitution of imported concentrated fruit juice into fruit juice for sale – whether or not Australian water, sugar, preservatives and packaging were used – is unlikely to be sufficient to allow Bevco to legitimately claim that the beverage products in question were made in Australia."
The Trade Practices Act 1974 prohibits companies from engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct and specifically from making a false or misleading representation about the place of origin of goods. To make the claim that a product is 'Made in Australia', it must have been substantially transformed in Australia and 50 per cent or more of the costs of production must have been incurred in Australia.
Bevco has given the ACCC court-enforceable undertakings to:
refrain from labelling its beverage products as "100% Australian Made and Owned" unless it can substantiate the claims,
publish a corrective notice, and
Establish and implement a trade practices law compliance program.
"Businesses must ensure the labelling of their products is accurate. The ACCC views very seriously misrepresentations involving country of origin claims. Businesses that represent certain products as Australian-made must recognise the responsibility that comes with such claims. Those making improper use of country of origin claims not only mislead consumers, but may obtain an unfair commercial advantage over companies accurately using such claims."
