so, for those of you who are following my investigation into the “free range” saga, woolworths did reply to me on tuesday. what they said was interesting, but didn’t answer all my questions…

here is what they said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact us.

We have forwarded your query to our technologist, who has informed me that the general food labelling regulations in South Africa only allows claims such as ‘free range’ to be made when it is unique to some products, and not true for the whole industry or product range.  For example, no one may claim that orange juice is free of the allergen gluten, as this is true for all orange juices.

The same principle applies to milk production – as dairy herds are ‘free range’, we cannot legally make this claim on the product packaging. However, the claim ‘free range’ can be made for red meat or chicken production, as the industry norm is to raise and house these animals in confined spaces, therefore, where animals are ‘free ranged’, it is a unique selling feature, and therefore a legal claim.

If we can be of assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us as follows, call us on 0860 022 002, email custserv@woolworths.co.za or contact us online www.woolworths.co.za.

Yours sincerely

NAIELA GABIER
Customer Care Consultant

hmmm. so woolworths says that you can’t technically call milk “free range” because ALL dairy cows are kept in free range conditions. interesting. fair cape’s take on this is that there are no free range standards in south africa. i wonder why they don’t use the same “independent auditors” that woolworths does?

at this stage it seems to me that woolworths obviously has some kind of auditors it uses (i really want to find out who they are and talk to them) and compares itself to international standards because there aren’t any here. while it seems that fair cape is claiming to be free range, but woolworths’ auditors have advised them that you can’t call dairy “free range” because ALL dairy cows are allowed space to roam. it really seems like i may have to visit some other dairies to see how they treat their cows.

my response to woolworths was:

Thanks for getting back to me.

While your information is slightly helpful, it does not answer my questions as posed in my original message.

I still wish to know who your “independent auditors” are who provide the certification you use for your “free range” products. I would like to contact them and speak to them myself.

Are you implying that Fair Cape, your major dairy supplier, is not legally allowed to claim that their own milk is free range? You imply this in your email…

Thanks
Candice

i replied on tuesday but haven’t heard back yet. let’s hope they let me meet these “independent auditors” as i am sure they can clear up a lot of these issues for me.