Fonterra and Greenpeace have agreed to resolve Greenpeace’s claim in the proceeding CIV-2024-404-2418 Greenpeace Aotearoa Inc v Fonterra Brands (New Zealand) Ltd.
The proceeding concerned claims by Greenpeace that a label on Anchor butter sold in New Zealand supermarkets between December 2023 and April 2025 was misleading and in breach of the Fair Trading Act 1986 because the diet of cows whose milk was used to make the butter included non-grass feed, including palm kernel expeller (PKE), an imported supplemental feed.
Fonterra accepted that the use in the Label of the two phrases ‘100% New Zealand’ and ‘Grass Fed’ in combination with each other was likely to mislead some New Zealand consumers, particularly those unaware of the nature of the feeds that are provided to dairy cows, and was in breach of s 9 of the Fair Trading Act 1986.
The claim did not put in issue the question of whether or not the phrase “Grass Fed” on its own was misleading, and Fonterra makes no admission that the words “Grass Fed” in isolation are likely to mislead. Fonterra has removed the label from its Anchor butter packaging and agreed not to use it on future packaging.
The New Zealand Government’s Ministry for Primary Industries has created a national New Zealand Dairy Grass-Fed Administrative Standard to define what constitutes a grass-fed system in New Zealand.
This reflects New Zealand’s temperate climate, which provides ideal conditions for pasture-based farming practised by generations of New Zealand farmers. This national Grass-Fed Standard specifies the requirements and attributes that must be met for Grass-Fed certification.
Fonterra’s farmers’ cows are 96 percent Grass Fed, with “grass” defined as including grass, grass silage, hay and forage crops (including brassicas and legumes).
Fonterra’s definition of grass is consistent with the grass-fed feed types in the New Zealand Dairy Grass-Fed Administrative Standard. The 96 percent statistic is calculated as an average across Fonterra’s farmers’ dairy herds, and on an ‘as consumed’ basis.
Fonterra is proud that its New Zealand milk is independently verified as meeting the requirements of the New Zealand Dairy Grass-Fed Administrative Standard.
