Consumers ‘misled’ by ‘meaningless’ claims on drink packaging

Tiny writing

In many cases the actual quantity of apple appears but only in tiny writing on the side of the carton.

The introduction of exotic fruit juices and smoothies has helped the industry boom and British consumers now drink 1.1 billion litres a year, the equivalent of 19 litres each.

Which? Said: “We’ve regularly found examples of confusing or meaningless claims on food and drink packaging. Products must live up to the claims made on the packaging. Consumers should get what they believe they’re buying.”

A spokesman for PepsiCo, owner of Tropicana, told the Sunday Times, that apple juice was blended with fruit such as mango and passion fruit to avoid juices being too thick or tasting too sharp.

A spokesman for Innocent, which is owned by Coca-Cola said: “It would be misleading if we called the smoothie ‘apple mango’, banana and passion fruit’, because the drink tastes of mango and passion fruit, not apple.

“If there was no juice and just crushed mangoes and passion fruit, you wouldn’t have a smoothie, you just have pureed fruit solids.”