Hell Pizza warned over fake meat

THE full fury of our free market regulator has come down on one hapless pizza chain.

Well, at least a sternly worded letter anyway.

This week Hell Pizza received a warning from the Commerce Commission, suggesting that it probably breached consumer rules in June when it launched is socalled ‘‘Burger Pizza’’.

About 3000 consumers were surprised to learn there was no actual ‘‘burger’’ in the pizza.

The commission agreed the pizza chain had misled consumers by covertly serving fake meat, in this case plantbased protein.

‘‘By describing the product as a ‘‘burger pizza’’ which was ‘‘loaded with chunks of mediumrare burger patty’’, Hell has likely made false or misleading representations about the kind and/or composition of goods offered for sale,’’the commission’s head of consumer Stuart Wallace said.

The commission received several complaints about the Hell Pizza promotion after it began on June 21.

On 25 June the advertising was amended to ‘‘mediumrare Beyond MeatTM burger patty.’’

Several complainants said they believed the Burger Pizza included meat.

‘‘A burger traditionally includes a patty of minced beef, though it can be made of other ingredients. Here the patty was referred to as ‘‘mediumrare’’ which is a term associated with meat, usually beef, indicating how thoroughly cooked it is.

‘‘There was no reference to the patty being vegetarian or plantbased,’’ Mr Wallace said.

‘‘All businesses should note that what they don’t say can be as important as what they do say, in making representations that may breach the Fair Trading Act.’’

The overall impression created matters, he said.

However, the commission noted that the conduct was short in duration and Hell had ceased to offer the Burger Pizza.

‘‘Hell told the commission it does not intend to engage in this sort of promotion again and will seek legal advice before launching future campaigns,’’ Mr Wallace said.