ASA Adjudication on Cornish Sea Salt Company Ltd

Ad

A trade press ad, for sea salt, was headlined "Catch the only British sea salt harvested straight from the ocean."

Issue

The Anglesey Sea Salt Company (Anglesey Sea Salt) objected that the claim was misleading, because they also harvested sea salt straight from the sea using salt water drawn directly to their plant from the sea through a pipe.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The Cornish Sea Salt Company Ltd (Cornish Sea Salt) said they had carried out extensive research into the claim before publishing the ad.  They said their harvesting plant was situated just 8 m away from and 10 m above the ocean and they could rightfully claim that their sea salt was harvested "straight from the ocean", whereas their competitors could not.  They said they had conducted site visits to Anglesey Sea Salt's harvesting facility in 2004 and 2006, which confirmed that Anglesey Sea Salt drew its salt water from the Anglesey side of the Menai Straits at Brynsiencyn, some 5 km from the open sea at Abermenai Point. They maintained that that could not be considered to be 'straight' from the ocean.  They said their other main competitor pumped water from the tidal river Blackwater and their harvesting plant was 1.5 km from the sea.

Cornish Sea Salt said they had held discussions with bodies such as the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the Royal Geographical Society. They said the International Hydrographic Organisation's 'Hydrographic Dictionary' defined as strait as "a narrow passage connecting two larger bodies of water" and an ocean as a "large body of salt water". Cornish Sea Salt said they had also had discussions with Cornwall Trading Standards, who approved the claim.  They said they had not intended the claim to comment on or make a comparison with their competitors or their products. They believed there was an increasing demand for information on the provenance of products in the food industry and that the communication of their unique geographic location was of significant importance to both trade clients and consumers alike. They pointed out that the leading sea salt producer had not complained about the claim.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA acknowledged Cornish Sea Salt's efforts to obtain substantiation for the claim prior to its publication. We noted both the complainants and Cornish Sea Salt drew their water through a pipe to their plant. We noted Cornish Sea Salts plant was only 8 m away from the coast and that their sea water was drawn directly from the ocean.  We understood, however, that the complainants also harvested their product from sea water, although that water flowed through the Menai Strait, which was not technically considered to be an ocean.  We noted Cornish Sea Salt had not sent information, which demonstrated that their product, or other ocean harvested sea salt, was different to that harvested from another body of sea water. We considered that although the claim was technically correct, readers might infer that Cornish Sea Salt was the only company that harvested sea salt directly from sea water. Because they were not, we concluded that the claim was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other Comparisons).

Action

We advised Cornish Sea Salt to consult the CAP Copy Advice team for guidance on qualifying and explaining the claim in future ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)