Boycott Heinz?

Heinz can keep their "Farmers' Market" brand name despite protests - see previous blogs on this here.

Yesterday the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rejected 25 complaints, including mine, that Heinz TV and press adverts implied the soups' ingredients came from farmers' markets. Stroud Farmers' Market organiser Clare Gerbrands is quoted in The Citizen saying: "How disappointing. I still think it (the Heinz soups) is nothing to do with farmers' markets. Farmers' markets are direct from the producer to the customer. Maybe the law needs changing?"

Nineteen members of the public (see my complaint on previous blogs) joined food and farming organisations, including Hampshire Farmers' Markets Ltd and The Real Jam and Chutney Co, in complaining to the ASA. But the ASA said the adverts, inviting the public to "taste the countryside", had been unlikely to mislead. Heinz apparently had lent clarity to the nature of the ingredients used by stating that they were sourced in the UK and other countries. The panel concluded: "We noted that, although one respondent thought that the soups were inspired by farmers' markets, none of the respondents had expressed confusion about the source of the product's ingredients. We considered that most viewers would understand that it was unlikely that a canned product, distributed on a national scale by Heinz, would be made from ingredients sourced locally from farmers' markets."

As Clare says, the law needs changing - farmers' markets are about fresh and local, this soup is neither and not even made or sold in farmers' markets. A marketing gimmick that makes a mockery of labeling products. I don't buy Heinz stuff anyway - at least I can't think of anything - but their attitude leaves a nasty taste that will no doubt guide me well away from their products in future!