New | Consumer advocate sues top mainland dairy for mislabelling

Mainland dairy giant Mengniu is being sued on the claim that one of its popular children’s products, which it labels as pure milk, is in fact modified milk.

Chongqing Jiangbei District People’s Court accepted the case last week after it was filed by Ye Guang, a Chongqing-based professional fraud buster.

Ye said Mengniu uses big characters on the front of the carton, proclaiming it is “Future Star Children’s Growth Milk”. However, on the side of the carton, the company says the product is “full-cream modified milk” in small characters.

The Chongqing Evening News reported that Ye’s allegation is based on China’s national standard on food safety, which stipulates that a “milk” product must be cow or sheep’s milk and must not contain anything else. But “modified milk” is allowed to contain water and food additives, with pure milk accounting for at least 80 per cent of the raw material.

“National packaging standards require that food manufacturers mark the product’s name prominently, and the name should represent the product’s true nature,” Ye was quoted as saying.

By mislabelling, Mengniu has infringed consumers’ right to know, he said.

What’s more, Ye said the company has mislabelled two other products that mainly target children. “They mark modified milk as ‘milk’, misleading parents who tend to regard the products as pure milk,” Ye said, adding that Mengniu is not the only culprit.