'Purge misleading food product ads'

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two consumer watchdogs have urged the government to help stop misleading advertisements on food and supplement products.

The Indonesian Pharmaceutical Watch (IPhW) and the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said a number of advertisements fooled the consumers and could be considered criminal offenses.

It was time for the government to correct the control and registration mechanism for both the promotion and the labeling of products, the watchdogs said.

"We criticize all advertisement practices that exploit the consumers' poor knowledge. We also question how the government can allow such advertisements," IPhW chairman Amir Hamzah Pane told reporters.

Amir, speaking at a joint media briefing with YLKI, accused PT Dwi Kelinci, the producer of peanut snacks Dua Kelinci and Kacang Shanghai DK, of having deliberately misled consumers by labeling its products as free from cholesterol, bleach and sweetener.

In its advertisement published in the print media, PT Dwi Kelinci thanked the Food and Drug Control Agency for approving Kacang Shanghai DK as bleach and sweetener free. It also thanked the Ministry of Industry and Trade for allowing the company to label its Dua Kelinci snacks cholesterol free.

"This is a double standard in the registration mechanism because such labeling and its control should be in the hands of the Ministry of Health," Amir said.

The company had also falsely claimed that its products had been approved by the YLKI.

A Biochemist from the Jakarta-based National University, Ernawati Sinaga, said that such labeling was irrelevant and biased as it was common knowledge that as plant-made products, the snacks didn't contain cholesterol that could endanger the consumers' health.

"Peanuts contain phytosterol, which is good for health, and are coated with wheat flour which is already white. The snacks are fried so sweetener is never used in the products. The advertisements are really misleading because it can be read that other similar peanut snacks contain all that," she said.

Amir said that many other advertisements had made improper claims.

He cited an advertisement for the fiber drink Vegeta, which stated that fiber acted like a lubricant for the human body when studies showed that fiber could cause intestinal obstruction.

Another misleading advertisement dealt with the instant milk Dancow which encouraged children to drink milk before bedtime because "sleeping was the prime time for growing", he said.

YLKI legal staffer Muhammad Ichsan reminded the producers not to make false claims and to reveal the actual composition of its products.

Ichsan said YLKI would take legal action against PT Dwi for using its name in the advertisement, implying as if the watchdog stood on the producers' side.

Ichsan said the foundation had asked PT Dwi to clarify the matter through advertisements in the same print media.

"If the company fails to meet our demands within the next seven days we will send a legal warning to them. If they still fail to heed our warning then we will sue them in court," he said.

In accordance to Law No. 8/1999 on Consumers Protection Article 9 and Article 62, such an advertisement can cause the producer to face five-years in jail and a Rp 2 billion fine.