A line of liquid silicone rubber food molds has once again earned unwanted attention.
Aktion Plagiarius e.V., an Elchingen, Germany-based antipiracy organization, alleged that an unknown Chinese manufacturer copied the Silikomart Professional Eclipse1000 LSR food molds produced by Silikomart srl in Mellaredo di Pianiga, Italy.
This resulted in the copied molds and their packaging becoming listed in the Plagiarius awards, announced at the annual Ambiente consumer goods fair in Frankfurt, Germany.
The allegedly plagiarized molds have identical shape and size to the original molds, but they are off-white instead of pure white, leading Silikomart to suspect that they are unlikely to have been post-cured, as an obligatory requirement for items in LSR in contact with food — unless presumably one of the newer nonpost-cure LSR materials is used, which is unlikely.
Printed cardboard packaging contains text on the front surface in the same font, style and position as the original, the only words differing being "super mart" instead of "Silikomart," "Eelipse" instead of "Eclipse1000" and the absence of "Made in Italy."
The Chinese package has a red instead of white side panel, where the fake name "super mart" appears again at the top, as opposed to "Silikomart" appearing on the bottom of the original package's side panel. The photograph of a mold and food items molded from it on the front side of the pack is identical to the original pack's image but in a different hue.
In 2018, Aktion Plagiarius named a smaller and differently shaped line of Silikomart cookie and chocolate molds.
All of the 10 negative award winners in 2019 have gone on display, along with original products and packs, as of Feb. 15 at the Aktion Plagiarius museum in Solingen, Germany.
Aside from the LSR food molds, five of the 10 awarded products were either molded entirely in thermoplastic or featured thermoplastic combined with metal.
According to Aktion Plagiarius, all 10 products that received a Plagiarius award were produced or supplied by companies in China.