A Canadian company has been ordered to pay £14,600 to a kosher food certification agency for misusing its logo on food products, citing the “spiritual trauma” caused to religious Jews eating non-kosher products.

Adee Flour Mills, which had been decertified by the Kashruth Council of Canada in 2017, was found to still be using the agency’s kosher trademark on its Easy Bake Devil’s Food Cake mix. The products were still being sold as late as November.

The case, heard in small claims court, saw Deputy Judge Lai-King Hum fine the cake mix company CA$20,000 (£11,700) for trademark infringement and breach of contract, plus a further CA$5,000 in punitive damages.

The judge called Adee Flour Mills’ behaviour “highly reprehensible”, noting that “the kosher Jewish community takes their dietary habits extremely seriously, and thus have placed enormous trust on the (Kashruth Council of Canada) to maintain high standards of control,” Canada’s National Post, reported.

She noted that for religious Jews to eat non-kosher products is seen as a “severe transgression” and that “failure to adhere to a kosher diet could foreseeably result in spiritual trauma.”

The Toronto-based Kashruth Council of Canada is operated by the Council of Orthodox Rabbis, known as COR.

The judge did not have the power to order the product removed from supermarket shelves, but the COR released an alert, warning kosher shoppers that “all products manufactured by Adee Flour Mills are not COR kosher certified.

“This product is not Kosher even when bearing a COR certified kosher symbol.”