Manuka Health Takes Legal Action
16 April 2008
Manuka Health Takes Legal
Action
Manuka Health New Zealand Ltd refutes claims and
takes
legal action against Active Manuka Honey
Association
Manuka Health New Zealand Ltd today initiated
strong legal action to
block what it claimed was a
“unilateral and unsubstantiated move” by
the Active
Manuka Honey Association to terminate its
membership.
Manuka Health chairman Dr Ray Thomson said the
company had instructed
its lawyers to challenge the
termination and AMHA’s allegations.
“In recent days
our lawyers have repeatedly asked AMHA to substantiate
their claims,” he said. “They have declined to
provide details.”
“We take this matter extremely
seriously and will not allow our
reputation to be
harmed in this way. We strongly refute AMHA’s
claims.”
Dr Thomson said Manuka Health would seek an
interim injunction to
prevent the membership
termination and would force AMHA to provide
details of
its allegations.
Manuka Health would not cease using the
UMF brand, nor would it remove
products or marketing
material.
The association operates the UMF testing and
branding scheme for
manuka honey. The UMF scheme
compares manuka honey’s properties with
different
concentrations of a standard laboratory disinfectant.
Dr
Thomson said the company would continue to use the UMF brand
alongside its own MGO brand, and that was what probably
prompted the
AMHA move.
Manuka Health earlier this
year launched the first products certified
to contain
specified levels of the antibacterial ingredient —
following the discovery by a German university scientist
that the
natural compound methylglyoxal is responsible
for manuka honey’s
unique properties.
Dr Thomson
said several AMHA member companies were known to regard the
discovery of methyglyoxal as a threat to the UMF
brand.
ends