Publications
Partners
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Siqalo Foods, the owner of Rama and Flora, has been ordered to stop selling its Stork spread in its current packaging as it creates the misleading impression that it is butter, rather than a modified butter spread.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled against the group this week in a case brought by Clover, which produces rival spread Butro.
Stork is made up of 62% plant oils and other ingredients, and 38% dairy products.
Siqalo, a subsidiary of Remgro, said it would stop the sale and distribution of the label within seven days. Stork will not be disappearing off the shelves of retailers. Rather, it will be relaunched with a new label.
The food producer said products currently on shelves would not be impacted by the ruling.
"There are no changes to the product itself, only the packaging will change," it said.
Siqalo said it had acted in good faith. While developing the product, it said consumer research had shown that respondents understood the product as a modified butter spread.
"The Supreme Court of Appeal judgment allows Siqalo Foods to move forward with legal certainty," it said.
Clover first complained that Stork's labelling was breaking provisions of the Agricultural Product Standards Act in 2021.
In November 2021, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria agreed with Clover, ruling that Stork must change its label.
Siqalo then took the matter on appeal to the SCA.
In its ruling this week, the SCA found the word 'butter' was the dominant feature on Stork's label, while 'medium fat modified butter spread with sunflower and palm oils' was "virtually invisible".
"The peculiar get-up of the label will self-evidently (or at least be likely to) deceive or confuse the notional consumer into believing that the product is a butter product," the court found.
