Australian Supermarket Accused of Using Olive Leaves as Filler in Oregano Products

Summary

Several major super­mar­ket chains in Australia, includ­ing Aldi, have been crit­i­cized by the ACCC for sell­ing oregano prod­ucts that con­tained a high per­cent­age of olive leaves instead of pure oregano, prompt­ing refunds and reg­u­lar test­ing by Aldi. The issue was brought to light by CHOICE, who found that only five out of twelve pop­u­lar oregano brands in Australia con­tained pure oregano, lead­ing to an inves­ti­ga­tion and promises from Aldi to address the prob­lem with their sup­pli­ers.

International dis­count super­mar­ket chain Aldi — as well as IGA, Coles, Woolworths and many other inde­pen­dent stores across Australia — have recently come under fire from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after stan­dard test­ing revealed that two of their pop­u­lar stocked oregano prod­ucts (Stonemill and Menora brands) con­tained a large per­cent­age of olive leaves instead of the actual herb on the label.

This comes after the Australian con­sumer group CHOICE’s dis­cov­ery that only five out of twelve pop­u­lar brands of dried oregano prod­ucts being sold in Australia con­tained pure oregano. The ACCC inves­ti­ga­tion was insti­gated after a for­mal com­plaint by CHOICE ear­lier this year.

Random tests of dried oregano prod­ucts were taken in April of this year fol­low­ing out­comes by U.K con­sumer advo­cacy group Which? pro­duc­ing sim­i­lar results, prompt­ing CHOICE to request in-depth test­ing of sim­i­lar local prod­ucts.

While only sin­gle sam­ples of each prod­uct where taken, the results were still indica­tive of a poten­tial breach of Australian Consumer Law as a delib­er­ate attempt to deceive con­sumers as the pack­ag­ing of these prod­ucts had a ​‘100 per­cent oregano’ claim. Aldi said that sup­ply chain issues are to blame and that they were just as sur­prised as con­sumers with the test results.

While Aldi has not the worst offender iden­ti­fied it was sin­gled out by the ACCC due to its promi­nence and reach in the mar­ket.

The chain has now agreed to sub­mit to reg­u­lar test­ing of its oregano prod­ucts and is offer­ing con­sumers refunds on all com­pro­mised prod­ucts pur­chased within a cer­tain time period.

It is esti­mated that close to 200,000 units were sold to cus­tomers dur­ing a year-long period. The brand has also promised to pur­sue ​“admin­is­trate solu­tions” with sup­pli­ers of their oregano prod­ucts to pre­vent this prob­lem hap­pen­ing again.

Aldi is cur­rently the third-largest super­mar­ket chain in Australia and is said to be rapidly gain­ing on its com­peti­tors using a low price strat­egy to lure cus­tomers from other chains. It has yet to be seen whether these rev­e­la­tions will have an impact on con­sumer con­fi­dence or dampen the brand’s plan to expand from its 400 stores into other loca­tions in South and Western Australia.

While there is no expla­na­tion yet for how the olive leaves found their way into the oregano prod­ucts, it is thought that the leaves where cho­sen due to their bit­ter taste and low price and the fact that when chopped finely it resem­bles oregano herbs.

Olive leaves are more fre­quently used as key ingre­di­ent in tea, where its liq­uid is extracted to form a solu­tion that has been used in tra­di­tional Mediterranean and Middle Eastern mar­kets for cen­turies. It is also pow­dered and bot­tled in pill form for its alleged anti-oxi­dant and immune boost­ing prop­er­ties.

• CHOICE


• The Guardian