ASDA withdraws Slimzone Meals amid row with Slimming World

The supermarket chain Asda has withdrawn a range of slimming meals after a disagreement with weight loss organisation Slimming World.

Asda launched a range of 12 meals this year, marketing them as counting as "free" foods under Slimming World's categorisation.

Free foods mean a dieter can eat as many as they want.

Slimming World said it could not confirm the meals counted as free and said Asda was misusing its trademark.

The move comes one week ahead of a court hearing about whether Asda was linking these products to Slimming World without its permission.

Slimming World said it had repeatedly asked Asda to give a detailed breakdown of the ingredients so it could give an assessment.

Subjective methods

It said that Asda would not supply the details, and because of this, it was unable to confirm whether or not the meals would be designated as "free" under Slimming World's healthy eating plan.

But an Asda spokesman said Slimming World's categorisation was not simply based on nutritional content: "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."

A Slimming World spokeswoman said: "We have been open with Asda and our members about the fact that we were unable to give an accurate value for the Slimzone meals, and that our evaluation process for ready meals is complex, and has subjective as well as objective aspects."

Asda said the meal packs included a statement informing customers that the range was not endorsed by Slimming World.