There have been several calls to the consumer watchdog to pursue an investigation to Coles for putting its products with a “tick symbol” which is similar to the symbol used by the Heart Foundation.

Coles, the supermarket company, has been using the tick symbol on its home-brand packaging products, while the Heart foundation is using the tick symbol on its food products and is complying with the strict standards.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon of South Australia said Coles should be punished for being deceptive and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should get to the bottom of the issue.

“Whether Coles is doing this deliberately is not so much the issue. The Fact is consumers can be misled by this,” he stressed.

“A busy shopper could easily be confused by this tick and wrongly assume that the Coles home-brand products are Heart foundation approved and that is fundamentally unfair to the Heart Foundation.”

As of press time, Coles did not release statements on the matter.

Coles is a leader in Australian food retailing, absorbing 100,000 employees in its 24 stores. It produces over 10 million customer transactions per week.

Coles first launched its first store in 1914 and is owned by Westfarmers Limited.