A logo similar to that used by the National Heart Foundation has been withdrawn from use by an egg producer after Australian Competition and Consumer Commission concerns.
"The ACCC has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from GO Drew Pty Ltd about a logo on its Essential Foods branded egg products which used a tick resembling the National Heart Foundation Smart Foods Tick Logo*", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
GO Drew, is a manufacturer of egg products. Two products, Essential Foods Sports Plus+ and Essential Foods Nurture Plus+ eggs, were marketed with the similar logo.
"The ACCC was concerned that Essential Foods products' logo may have misled consumers in breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974 that the Essential Foods egg products had foundation approval and nutritional benefits".
GO Drew stopped the distribution of the two egg products with the logo in July 2003 after being advised that it was similar to the Foundation's tick logo. It has undertaken that it will not make a representation that its products have approval from any organisation when this is not the case. GO Drew will also implement a corporate compliance program, for a minimum of two years, to help it to deal with the requirements of the Act.
"The company had acted promptly to address the issue and has undertaken to adopt measures to promote better compliance with the Act in future and which should prevent or reduce the risk of inadvertent use of logos deceptively similar to existing recognised logos in the future".
* The National Heart Foundation conducts the Food Information Program, more commonly known as the Tick Program, on a national basis. Under that program, the Heart Foundation licenses certain food producers to use its Tick logo on food packaging that satisfies certain nutritional requirements.