ACCC finds Sanitarium to have mislead customers

An ACCC investigation has left Sanitarium and its parent company Australian Health and Nutrition Association Limited with egg on their face, having overstated the fruit content on the packaging of many of their best-selling cereal lines.

Between February 2009 and October 2010, Sanitarium described a ‘percentage fruit content’ on their packaging which included other substances, such as sugars, wheat fibre and gelling agents. The overstated fruit percentages were shown on the company’s Weet-Bix Wild Berry Bites, Weet-Bix Apricot Bites, Granola Clusters and Light’n'Tasty Triple Berry cereals.

The ACCC became concerned that Sanitarium was creating the impression their cereals contained more of the prominently-depicted fruit than they really did, conduct which may be in contravention of the Trade Practices Act.

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