In its ruling issued this Wednesday, the ASA agreed with a complainant that a local press advert for Arla Foods’ organic milk using the text “good for the land” and “helping support a more sustainable future” was misleading.

The co-op argued that one of the key principles of organic farming was good treatment of the land with sustainability at its heart. Arla Foods backed this up with the Soil Associations’ organic standards document and added that it had taken steps across its business to ensure the sustainability of its organic milk through the full life cycle of the product.

We did not consider they had substantiated that organic milk production had an overall positive impact on the environment

The co-op provided evidence of the organic farming methods used and believed this was more sustainable than non-organic farming, the ASA accepted this claim. However, the authority added: “We did not consider they had substantiated that organic milk production had an overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle. We therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.”

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again and “told Arla Foods Ltd to ensure that in future they did not make environmental claims about their products unless they held sufficient substantiation”.

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