A leading supermarket has withdrawn a range of healthy ready meals from its shelves after facing legal action from Slimming World.
Asda released its new “Slimzone” line in January, with the packaging stating that buyers were “free to enjoy following the Slimming World Easy plan.”
But the well-known weight loss organisation was unhappy with the branding and sought an injunction over the use of its trademark in relation to 12 meals on sale.
Slimming World, a UK outfit which now has more than a million members and also markets its own range of foods, had not endorsed or tested the Slimzone products and it is not believed that Asda had approached the company before launching the products.
Slimming World had also accused the supermarket giant, a subsidiary of Walmart, of not supplying sufficient details about the ingredients.
A spokesman said: “Although we repeatedly asked Asda to give us a more detailed breakdown of the ingredients used so that we could make an accurate assessment, they would not supply those details.
“[So] we were unable to confirm whether or not the meals would be designated as Free Food on Slimming World’s healthy eating plan.
“It’s always been our view that Asda were misusing our trademarks to promote the range, trading on the back of our much-loved and respected name and reputation, regardless of whether the meals count as Free Food on our healthy eating plan.”
An Asda spokesman insisted the range of foods – which included a Thai green curry and cottage pie – made clear that the range was not endorsed by Slimming World. The firm nonetheless chose to pull the meals from around 600 stores nationwide, confirming its decision over the weekend.
A spokesman said: “We take great pride in the integrity of the claims we make about our products. Recent information has come to light indicating that the method used by Slimming World to assess whether a ready-meal is free or not, surprisingly, is partly subjective and involves more than simply making food with free ingredients.
“Slimzone was always intended to bring more choice and lower prices to customers shopping for healthy frozen ready meals but because of this new information, we have chosen to remove the range while we consider the best option for our customers.”