Some people might not care too much about which spread they use, but others insist it has to be butter.
Pip from Christchurch is one of those people, especially when it comes to the spread used in garlic bread.
She bought Heritage Bread’s “Mighty Buttered Garlic Bread” thinking that rich, buttery taste would be in abundance. But once home she looked more closely at the ingredients list only to find there was no butter to be found, only margarine.
“It’s deceit, it’s spin” she complains. She got in touch with Fair Go to get another opinion.
A simple check of the dictionary shows that the verb “to butter” means to spread with butter, so Fair Go thought it was worth understanding the Commerce Commission’s take on this product name.
It replied that the name may be in breach of the Fair Trading Act. A commission spokesperson further explained that “the term 'buttered' may be false or misleading if the packaging creates the impression that the product contains real butter, when it doesn’t".
"Brand and product names can contribute to the overall impression created. It doesn’t matter if the ingredients list shows no butter is in the product, as traders can’t rely on fine print to correct an overall misleading impression.”
Fair Go contacted Bernie Sugrue who owns Heritage Breads to understand why the word “buttered” had been used.
“Well we’ve never thought we were misleading people and we’ve made maybe 7-800,000 of these loaves," Sugrue said.
"I mean you can play with words can’t you? Peanut butter isn’t butter and you butter up your boss don’t you? But hey I’m not out to mislead anybody so we’ll talk to the plate makers and we’ll just take that word out”.
Well, no sooner said than done. Heritage Breads had the plates changed within a matter of days. From now on, the bread will be called “Mighty Garlic Ciabatta”.
Sugrue did raise the question of how some other products might be misleading. However, Fair Go assessed five other brands that contained margarine and none made any mention of butter, simply named “garlic bread”. One product, Yarrow’s garlic butter filled buffet rolls, did contain a mix of butter and margarine, but that would appear acceptable given some butter was present.
Still, Pip would like all labels to be as clear as possible as she believes that’s fair to the consumer. She’s glad Heritage Breads is doing the right thing, but recommends customers check the ingredients list for any brand to make sure their garlic bread’s as delicious as they hope it will be.
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