Parents beware, juice in juice drinks costs up to £34 per litre!

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 27 Jun 2004 - 3:00 PDT


Parents are unwittingly paying up to £34 a litre for fruit juice when they buy it in the form of 'juice drinks', according to a survey published today in the Food Magazine, UK.

"Many children's products boast that they contain real fruit, but most juice drinks usually contain only a small amount of real juice, sold at an exorbitant price," said Kath Dalmeny, Policy Officer for the Food Commission (publisher of the Food Magazine). "The description 'juice drink' typically means watered-down juice, with sugar, sweeteners, colours and flavours. These are added to make low-juice drinks seem fruitier than they really are."

The survey found that popular products such as Ribena, Robinsons Fruit Shoot and Calypso juice drinks, sold in small containers for children's lunchboxes, contain very little real juice (see table below). If parents bought pure juice at the same price per ml, they would pay between £3.53 and £34.67 per litre.

More.....THE FOOD COMMISSION, UK

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