NORTH Coast producers of pure tea oil have welcomed an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission crack-down on fraudulent imitations.
Australian supplier of Bosisto’s tea tree oil, Felton Grimwade and Bosisto’s has paid a penalty of $10,800 following the issue of an infringement notice by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in what is being heralded as a win for the provenance brand.
North Coast producers pride themselves on distilling a 100 per cent pure product that causes no skin irritations but chemically ‘correct’ imitations, created from waste pine oil or waste eucalyptus oil have in recent times flooded the market, presenting themselves as ‘100pc pure’ at a much lower cost to the consumer.
A more accurate molecular-testing regime is expected to be included in the Australian Standards this year, to weed out further imitations.
Tony Larkman from the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association has said previously that fake oil has the potential to cause skin irritations and damage the reputation of the pure product.
The ACCC issued an infringement notice and cited reasonable grounds to believe that Bosisto’s had made a false or misleading representation in breach of consumer laws, incorrectly labelling its tea tree oil as 100pc pure.
While its the first time a fine has been issued, the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association (ATTIA) has known about the problem for at least three years and has actively lobbied the ACCC to take action.
In 2013 it had 60 samples of products labelled as pure tea tree oil collected from Australian companies and 40 from overseas companies independently analysed this year.
“Initial results are showing all Australia samples, except one, was pure tea tree oil but a significant number from other countries was adulterated,” Mr Larkman said.
“One in four from Germany were adulterated, (as were) 100pc from China, 75pc from the US and 90pc from the UK.”
The products are blended with terpinen-4-ol, a byproduct of the processing of other oils such as Sandalwood, Pine Oil and Eucalyptus – effectively industrial waste.
“Most were adulterated to the tune of 10 to 30pc, although some were 100pc waste product,” Mr Larkman said.
