ASA Adjudication on McCain Foods (GB) Ltd

Ad

A poster for oven chips had the heading "Eat your greens" above four green circles and an image of a bowl of chips. In each of the four circles was text that stated LOW FAT, LOW SATURATES, LOW SUGAR and LOW SALT. At the bottom of the poster was an image of the product pack and text that stated "It's all good".

Issue

Nine complainants challenged whether the ad was misleading and irresponsible, because they believed the reference to "greens" implied that oven chips were a green vegetable and could be counted as one of a person's recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

McCain Foods (GB) Ltd (McCain) explained that the statement "Eat your Greens" referred to the fact that their Rustic Oven Chips had four green traffic lights, for being low in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, in accordance with the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) traffic light labelling scheme. They said the FSA had launched the scheme to help consumers make informed and healthy choices, and that under the scheme a green, amber or red light was awarded according to the level of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in a particular food, where green was a low level and red a high level.

McCain argued that they had not intended the ad to imply that chips could be consumed as part of the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Rather they had wanted to communicate in a simple way that their Rustic Oven Chips were the healthiest choice of chip, with four green traffic lights. McCain explained that the skin had been left on Rustic Oven Chips in order to maintain more of the vitamin and mineral goodness of the potato. They said the potato was an affordable and nutritious food, and a valuable source of carbohydrate, fibre and vitamin C. They said Rustic Oven Chips were 3% fat and were the first chip to be awarded four green traffic lights.

McCain said they were the first major food manufacturer to adopt both the FSA Traffic Light scheme and the Guideline Daily Amounts format on all their product packs. They said that decision was based upon extensive consumer research that showed that most consumers wanted to see both labelling formats on packs. They said they were committed to providing nutritional information that allowed customers to make informed choices about their products.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted McCain's argument that the "Eat your greens" claim referred to the fact that Rustic Oven Chips had four green traffic light symbols in accordance with the FSA's traffic light labelling scheme, and not that Rustic Oven Chips could be consumed as part of a person's recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. We understood that the FSA's traffic light labelling scheme was designed to help consumers make a healthier choice between similar products, by providing at-a-glance information about the amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in a particular food product.

We considered that most consumers were aware of the traffic light labelling scheme, and that it rated foods that were low in a particular nutrient with a green light, foods that were high in a particular nutrient with a red light, and foods that did not have a high or low level of a particular nutrient with an amber light. We considered that the prominence of the four green traffic lights in the ad, directly below the headline claim, made it clear that the statement "Eat your greens" referred to those green traffic lights, and we also considered that that was emphasised by the fact that the traffic lights were highlighted in green and displayed the text "LOW FAT", "LOW SATURATES" "LOW SUGAR" and "LOW SALT". We acknowledged that some consumers might understand the term "greens" to refer to vegetables in general, and by extension the government's recommendation of five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. However, we noted that the ad did not make any reference to the Department of Health's '5 A Day' Campaign, or suggest that consumers should replace one of their daily portions of fruit or vegetables with a portion of oven chips. Because of that, and because we considered that the overall message of the ad was that Rustic Oven Chips were low in fat, saturates, sugar and salt according to the FSA traffic light labelling system, we concluded that the ad was not irresponsible or misleading.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Principles) and 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)