The story dates back to 1993-1995, when Tnuva, the nation’s largest dairy, was caught adding silicone to one liter containers of low fat milk to prevent foaming.
 
The Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday ruled that Tnuva violated the rights of consumers, even if the silicone was in small doses and did not negatively impact the health of shoppers. The court stated the dairy intentionally defrauded consumers who believed they were buying milk.  Tnuva is ordered to pay NIS 55 million and NIS 250,000 to Israel’s consumer council, named as a major plaintiff in the class action lawsuit.
 
Justice Dr. Amiram Binyamini stated the dairy cooperative intentionally added silicone to low fat milk in violation of health and consumer laws without attempting to notify consumers in any way. The court explained that even though we now know no one was harmed, the dairy ignored the rights of consumers and consumer law, opting not to list the silicone as an ingredient in what shoppers believed was pure milk.
 
The silicone was added to some 13 million one-liter bags of 1% milk for an 18-month period. Instead of changing the equipment used to process the milk at a cost of $400,000, Tnuva opted to introduce the silicone which prevented the milk from foaming.
 
The 200,000 plaintiffs will receive NIS 250 each.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)