ASA Adjudication on Giovanni Rana

Ad

A TV ad, for pasta, showed a protest by the "Citizens for Fresh Pasta Justice" outside 10 Downing Street. The ad contained many references to fresh pasta, including the politician Anne Widdecombe stating "It is high time that fresh pasta came right up the political agenda". At the end of the ad a voice-over stated "Giovanni Rana; Great Britain deserves Italy's No 1 fresh pasta."

Issue

The Chilled Food Association challenged whether the claim "fresh pasta" was misleading, because they believed the advertised product had an in-store shelf life of seven weeks. The complainant believed consumers would understand the claim "fresh" to mean a product with a very short shelf life. They also referred to the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) 1996 circular on "fresh pasta", which they said supported the approach advocated by the Italian Fresh Pasta Producers Association. They said the LACORS circular quoted the Italian Fresh Pasta Producers Association (APPF) guidelines, which defined fresh pasta as having a minimum moisture content of 25%, a shelf life not exceeding five weeks, and as being reliant on chilled storage to achieve this shelf life.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Giovanni Rana said that traditional Italian cooking had always divided pasta into two categories; "fresh" and "dried". They said their fresh pasta was never frozen or dehydrated and only contained preservatives in the cured meats used in some of the fillings. They said, due to the conditions in which their fresh pasta was made, with limited exposure to air and packaged in a modified environment, it had a maximum of 60 days life under refrigeration. However, they explained that, once opened in a customer's kitchen, the product only lasted three days in the fridge, whereas dried pasta had a life span of approximately two years in the kitchen.

Giovanni Rana explained that, although there was no dedicated legislation concerned with pasta labelling in the UK, pasta in Italy had a dedicated law, notified to the European Commission, and this stated certain parameters to define "fresh egg pasta", including egg content, moisture, water activity, hygiene of the process with a pasteurization treatment, and storage under refrigerated conditions. They said that dried pasta was required to have a moisture content of less than 12.5% under this law and water activity of less than 0.92. They said all Giovanni Rana fresh pasta sold in the UK met the parameters for fresh pasta under this Italian pasta law.

Giovanni Rana said fresh egg pasta was different from dried pasta in a number of other ways, including a shorter cooking time, a softer texture and less moisture absorption during cooking. They said that these characteristics defined the freshness of pasta and not simply shelf life, and that this was in accordance with EU directives on the subject.

They said the Italian Fresh Pasta Producers Association (APPF) guidelines did not give a shelf life of five weeks for "fresh pasta" but stated it could have a shelf life of up to 60 days provided it was packaged in a protective atmosphere. They sent a letter from the APPF to support that. The letter said additionally that the APPF considered the true meaning of "fresh" in a pasta context was defined by the characteristics of the product, for example fresh pasta had a moisture content of roughly 30% compared to 12.5% for dried pasta, and a cooking time of roughly 1-3 minutes compared to 10-12 minutes for dried pasta. The APPF said new production technologies now let producers of fresh pasta make products with substantially greater refrigerated shelf lives whilst in no way compromising their microbiological qualities or their freshness in terms of preserving the fresh state in which the pasta was at the time of packaging.

Clearcast said they agreed with the advertiser. They said they considered consumers would not be misled by the description of this product as "fresh pasta". They said they considered that consumers were familiar with two types of pasta widely available, the fresh variants such as Giovanni Rana that required refrigeration and the dry varieties that did not. They said they had viewed a product sample and considered that from the appearance, texture, colour, and the need to keep the product chilled, it was appropriate to describe it as "fresh pasta".

Clearcast also said they considered that a refrigerated shelf life of seven weeks did not mean the pasta was not a fresh variant rather than a variant of the dried kind. They said they believed texture, cooking time, appearance and storage method were most relevant in making the distinction between fresh and dried pasta. They said they were confident the product had been described accurately.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the LACORS circular (1996) which quoted the APPF guidelines as defining fresh pasta as having a minimum moisture content of 25%, a shelf life not exceeding five weeks, and as being reliant on chilled storage to achieve this shelf life. We consulted LACORS on this subject. They told us that they were intending to update their advice, in line with the current APPF guidance. They said their new advice was scheduled to recommend a definition for "fresh pasta" including a refrigerated shelf life of up to 60 days.

We also consulted the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). They explained that their guidance on "Criteria for the Use of the Terms Fresh, Pure, Natural etc in Food Labelling" did not set a shelf-life limit for "fresh pasta"; however, they said that the document did refer interested parties to the 1996 LACORS circular. They told us they understood LACORS was revising their guidance on "fresh pasta" and said their own advice would be updated to reflect that.

The ASA accepted Giovanni Rana's argument that their "fresh" pasta behaved like fresh egg pasta in terms of its refrigerated storage, its egg and moisture content and its cooking time. We acknowledged that current Italian law did not set out a refrigerated shelf-life definition of fresh pasta but a definition concerned with moisture content and refrigerated storage. We acknowledged that Giovanni Rana's pasta met the requirements for "fresh pasta" under Italian law, and also under the APPF's guidelines.

We noted that Italian law was not applicable in the UK. However, we also noted that both LACORS and the FSA, bodies responsible for producing best practice guidance on food labelling in the UK, were revising their guidelines to reflect current guidance from the APPF.

We considered that most UK consumers would understand "fresh pasta" to refer to pasta with a particular consistency, sold under chilled conditions in the shops, and with a shelf life of a matter of days once opened and stored in the refrigerator at home.  We inspected a sample of the product. We concluded that the description of Giovanni Rana pasta as "fresh pasta" was unlikely to mislead UK consumers. We noted that Giovanni Rana pasta had a refrigerated shelf life of up to 60 days (unopened) and that this was in line with intended revised UK guidance on "fresh pasta" from LACORS, also endorsed by the FSA.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Code rule 5.1 (Misleading advertising) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)