Food supplements ad claimed as “food-grown” misleading

The Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) ruled that a poster marketing a food supplement which included the claim “Wild by nature Food-Grown supplements, backed by science” was misleading.

Whilst acknowledging that the claim “Food-Grown” described the company’s approach to formulation, rather than to suggest the supplements were literally ‘grown’, the ASA considered the wording “Wild by nature” was likely to cause consumers to understand the nutrients in the supplements were produced directly from specific food or natural sources, and not made using synthetic vitamin or mineral forms, as they were.