The chair of the Ben & Jerry’s board “no longer meets the criteria to serve as a member”, Unilever said in a SEC filing without naming Anuradha Mittal.

Doubts have emerged over whether the chair of Ben & Jerry’s board will continue to be part of parent company Unilever’s ice cream spin-off.

Those doubts surfaced this week in a filing by the demerged entity – The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) – with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) insinuating Anuradha Mittal will no longer be on board.

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She joined Ben & Jerry’s in 2007, according to the website of the US-headquartered ice-cream company founded by social activists Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

Mittal became Ben & Jerry’s ‘independent’ chair in 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile, two years before Unilever took over the business under an agreement that Cohen and Greenfield have previously said purportedly “guaranteed the company’s autonomy…with the freedom to pursue its social mission”.

Almost two months after Greenfield quit Ben & Jerry’s amid a long-running dispute with Unilever claiming a lack of autonomy around the founders’ social values and requests for independence from TMICC, the situation has escalated.

“Following investigations commissioned by the group and conducted by external advisers, in the opinion of the group the current chair of the Ben & Jerry’s board no longer meets the criteria to serve as a member of the Ben & Jerry’s board,” a registration document filed with the SEC on 4 November read.

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While Mittal was not referred to by name, the document added: “The group has informed the Ben & Jerry’s board about the results of the internal investigations. The group will consider its options depending on the response it receives from the Ben & Jerry’s board.”