Comvita has been taken to task by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) over the language used in its first-half result, issued in February, relating to the claimed health benefits of its two key products - propolis and manuka honey.
The company said MPI believed the half-year results breachedthe Food Act 2014 and the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code because companies were not permitted to use performance claims for products classed as food.
Comvita told the NZX that the release was never intended to be advertising, but that it was "pleased" to amend it accordingly.
In its result Comvita said it was seeing strong demand for its core propolis and manuka honey products. The revised release removes the associated words "which are known to support immunity".
Elsewhere, also in reference to propolis and mānuka honey, the words "known anti-viral, anti-microbial and immunity benefits" were removed.
The word "build" was removed and replaced with "support" in reference to the immunity benefits of propolis - which is produced by bees when they build a hive.
In its revised release, Comvita said: "Historically we have seen a significant uplift in sales in the winter months as consumers look to support their immunity with these products."
In this clause, the words "boost immunity following an outbreak of flu" were removed.
Comvita said in a statement the reworded release did not alter the financial information disclosed to the market.
Comvita had to remove associated words "which are known to support immunity".
In its result for the six months to December 31, the company reported a net loss of $12.97 million, with non-operating items accounting for $5.8m of the total.
The company last year reported a $27.7m annual net loss after writing off $20.1m of goodwill.
Last month Comvita said this year's mānuka honey harvest was looking positive with volumes having improved by around 50 per cent over the prior season.
The company said it continued to work on getting $15m of costs out of the business.
"Benefits are already starting to show for the business, although the full impact of these initiatives will only become obvious in the 2021 financial year," it said then.
Against the backdrop of stock market conditions generally, the Comvita board has decided to postpone the previously announced capital raising until conditions stabilised.
The company said it was currently trading profitably, was generating positive operating cashflows and was paying down debt.
