Company fined after selling products with deadly allergen

A Nottinghamshire company has been fine after it made claims about diet pills it sold online and failed to tell its customer they contain a potentially deadly allergen.

Suede Apple of Retford has been fined by magistrates following a Nottinghamshire County Council Trading Standards investigation.

Nicola Brownson-Smith, director of Suede Apple, admitted four charges relating to false advertising on its packaging and website and placing unsafe product on the market by failing to declare some of the pills contained the allergen, Crustacea.

She was fined £660 and ordered to pay £500 costs at a hearing at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Friday 14 December 2018.

The charges related to two products – Fat Blocker and Inner Cleanse, which Nottinghamshire County Council trading standards officers test purchased from the company’s website, following a tip-off from officers in another part of the country.

Labelling on the Fat Blocker pills made unauthorised health claims, including ‘blocks absorption of fat and cholesterol’, ‘sugar destroyer’, ‘fight the fat’ and ‘decreases absorption of sugar’. While the Inner Cleanse packaging falsely claimed that taking the pills ‘relieves fluid retention’, ‘reduces cholesterol’, ‘cleanses the bowel’ and detoxes and nourishes the digestive system’.

The Foods Standards Agency asked the company to issue a product recall in relation to the Fat Blocker pills, after they were found to contain the allergen, Crustacea – which could put consumers at risk of potentially deadly anaphylaxis. Anyone who thinks they have this product is being urged not to consume them and return them to where they bought them.

The company’s websites where the products were being sold – www.chocolatebananaslimming.com and www.suedeapple.co.uk – have been taken down.

Nicola Schofield, trading standards team manager at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Because of the presence of Crustacea in these pills, which is not declared on the label, it is really important that anyone who still has them does not consume them. Instead they should return them to where they brought them at the earliest opportunity. Trading Standards officers are continuing to monitor selling sites and will take steps to get both products removed from sale, if and when they appear.”