Over half of the most highly advertised children’s food and beverage products that clearly show fruit on their packaging, contain no fruit at all, according to the ‘Where’s the fruit?’ study released in the U.S.
The study, which focuses on TV adverts of food and beverages which are targeted at children, was carried out by the Prevention Institute, a non-profit center that aims to improve public health. The brands used for the study were the identified as the “top-spending children’s food advertisers on TV”, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent study It’s Child’s Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food for Children
The Prevention Institute study showed that 51 percent of the products included in its recent study were found not to contain any fruit, while a further 16 percent contained “minimal” amounts of fruit despite prominent fruit promotions on the packaging.
Many of the foods have brightly colored packages containing images of fruits or words related to fruit, such as “fruit”, “fruity” , or the name of fruits, such as “strawberry” or “wild cherry” .
The products used for the study ,37, were divided into four categories based on the type of fruit they contained. These were the key findings:
-51% of the products contained no fruit.
-16% of the products contained minimal amounts of food in the form of 2-10% of fruit juice.
-6% of the products contained 100% fruit juice.
-27% contained fruit or fruit from concentrate.
The report suggests several steps that need to be taken to prevent misleading marketing:
– manufacturers must remove misleading statements and images from their products;
– advertisements of highly sweetened foods and beverages to children must be discontinued;
– existing products should be reformulated to increase fruit content and reduce sweetener content.
This report also shows clearly that existing rules are ignored:
In order to achieve these goals the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration agency, responsible for food safety and regulation of the food industry, believe that regulations on health claims and product definitions should be strenthened and properly implemented. The FDA’s “common or usual name” regulations require that a food label accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterising properties or ingredients.
FDA regulations also specify that the common or usual name of a product should include the percentage of any characterising ingredient when this percentage has a material bearing on price, on consumer acceptance, or when the labeling creates an erroneous impression that said ingredient is present in an amount greater than is actually the case.
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Related articles:
– Towards banning junk food advertising? The UK debates
– Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods
– EPHA Response to EC’s Proposal on ‘Nutrition & Health Claims Made on Foods’