Amul Won a Lawsuit Against Kwality Wall's and Others: Fact Check

Story:

Ice-cream update – Amul has won a lawsuit against Walls, Kwality and some other branded icecream makers. They can no longer sell their products as icecream. Hence the new marketing name is ‘frozen desserts’. If you check labels of items sold as frozen desserts it does say hydrogenated vegetable oil which is dalda! So if its frozen dessert, its definately dalda. You can check the packs. This is ice cream season. All our children love to eat it, so be aware that AMUL is the only ice cream manufacturer who makes icecream from milk not from vegetable fats.

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Fact Check:

The story in circulation over internet states popular Indian dairy cooperative company Amul won a lawsuit against Kwality Wall’s and some other branded ice cream makers. It says they can no longer sell their products as ice cream, and the new marketing name is ‘Frozen Desserts’. It also claims the labels of the frozen desserts say hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is Dalda, and suggest it is not healthy. Another version of the same story mentioned it was the ice cream brand Dinshaw’s that won the lawsuit. However, the claims as such are not facts, and seem to have originated from a complaint related to the issue made by Amul marketers.

Actual Concern

In late 2012, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, marketing the top ice-cream brand Amul, complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) the mention of Kwality Wall’s frozen desserts as ice cream in some media advertisements as a deliberate attempt to mislead people. Frozen desserts look and taste like ice cream but are made out of edible vegetable fat instead of diary (milk) fat. Following the complaint, India’s advertising regulator ASCI told Hindustan Unilever (parent organization of Kwality Wall’s) to stop mentioning its Kwality Wall’s brand as ‘ice cream’ in certain advertisements. Kwality Wall’s agreed to replace the word ‘ice cream’ with ‘frozen dessert’ in the ads.

Amul Did Not Win Such Lawsuit

As mentioned in the story, Amul or even Dinshaw’s did not file any such lawsuit. Talking about the rumour in a related FAQ section, Hindustan Unilever’s Kwality Wall’s stated on their official website kwalitywalls.in that they sell both Ice Creams and Frozen Desserts in India, and have clear declaration of the same since they were launched in the market. They also mentioned the claims saying frozen desserts are not healthy and made of hydrogenated fat (Dalda) – are incorrect. The debate whether milk fat based ice creams are healthier or vegetable fat based frozen desserts is not new. Not just in India, in 2011 there was same scenario about Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts in other countries like Canada.

Note that along with Kwality Wall’s, other companies in India like Vadilal, Lazza Ice Creams and Cream Bell, also sell frozen desserts – served in identical cups, cones and sticks as ice cream. Earlier, a May 2012 article on The Economic Times website articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com reported some food authority officials and ice-cream makers such as Amul and Mother Dairy feeling those companies are misleading consumers by masquerading frozen dessert as ice cream. They also mentioned the frozen dessert is made with vegetable fat, almost 80% cheaper, adding milk-fat makes for real ice cream to impart a superior taste.

Later in March 2017 Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Vadilal Group took “Amul” ice cream maker Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) to Court over a television commercial, which allegedly belittles “frozen desserts”. GCMMF however argued that they launched the commercial to “educate consumers to identify and differentiate between ice-cream and frozen desserts”.