Archived press release

Sainsbury's misled customers on pesticides

28 March 2001

A complaint against a Sainsbury's advert which implied its British fruit and vegetables were free of pesticides has been upheld today by the Advertising Standards Authority. The complaint to the ASA was submitted by a member of the public.

Friends of the Earth challenged Sainsbury's about the misleading nature of its advert when it first appeared in national newspapers, including the Sunday Times, last October. The advert claims that Sainsbury's prefers the use of natural pest controls such as ladybirds to chemical sprays. Friends of the Earth analysis of pesticide data published by the Government revealed that over half of the fruit and vegetables sold by Sainsburys (UK and imported) contained pesticide residues and UK grown 42% [1]. Apples from Sainsbury's were found to contain chlorpyrifos, a pesticide which has been severely restricted in the US due to concerns about its effects on children's health.

In upholding the complaint the ASA ruled that the advert could be misleading to Sainsbury's customers “The Authority considered that the image and headline implied that Sainsbury used natural farming methods on all their British fruit and vegetables. The Authority was concerned that that implication, coupled with the ambiguous claim, could mislead consumers”. The ASA asked Sainsbury's to “amend the advert” and to ensure that they take advice from the Committee of Advertising Copy before launching any similar advertising campaigns.

Friends of the Earth wants supermarkets to work with farmers to reduce pesticide use and is also urging all supermarkets to ban the most dangerous pesticides including hormone disrupters. FOE also wants supermarkets to be honest to their customers and publish information about pesticides found in the food they sell.

Sandra Bell, Real Food Campaigner of Friends of the Earth said:
“The ASA' s decision is a warning to all supermarkets not to make false claims about their food. We want to see all supermarkets working with farmers to produce pesticide-free food but by pretending that it has already achieved this when dangerous pesticides are still being found in its food Sainsbury's has not been honest with their customers. If Sainsbury's is so confident about getting pesticides out of its fruit and veg it should spend its money on telling its customers the results of its residue testing instead of on advertising campaigns to mislead them”.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.

Pesticide Residues in UK Produce from Sainsbury's, taken from
Annual Report of the Working party on Pesticide Residues 1999

* The monitoring of pears and sweet peppers only looked for 1 or 2 specific pesticides which had previously been found at high levels - it is therefore possible that residues of other pesticides were present but were not looked for.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust