Lactalis pays penalties over alleged mislabelled milk products

Lactalis Australia Pty Ltd has paid $59,400 in penalties after the ACCC issued it with three infringement notices for allegedly making false or misleading representations in the labelling of two of its milk products.

An ACCC investigation of the milk processing industry, which included obtaining information and reviewing the products of several major dairy processors and retailers, found that most processors and retailers label their fresh milk products accurately

However, ACCC alleges that Lactalis’ Golden North ‘Country Fresh’ 2L milk and Ferguson Valley ‘WA DAIRY FRESH’ 2L milk were labelled as fresh milk, when each contained substantial amounts of powdered reconstituted ingredients. The alleges that Lactalis added reconstituted skim milk and lactose to its Golden North ‘Country Fresh’ 2L milk, and reconstituted lactose to its Ferguson Valley ‘WA DAIRY FRESH’ 2L milk.

Lactalis has now removed the word ‘fresh’ from these product labels.

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