Published on: January 26, 2007
Source: www.supermarketguru.com
A new study conducted by the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments suggests that more than half of the most aggressively advertised and marketed children's food with pictures or names of fruit on the packaging actually contain little or no fruit at all.
The study, entitled "Where's the Fruit", reveals that 51 percent of these products do not contain fruit, and another 16 percent contain only minimal amounts of fruit despite prominent fruit promotions on the packaging. Only 27 percent of the products examined contained fruit (in the form of fruit puree or fruit from concentrate). Six percent were 100 percent fruit juice; however fruit juice does not contain the equivalent fiber, vitamins and minerals of whole fruit. The study is to be released at the 2007 California Childhood Obesity Conference this week.
"Parents drawn to products that seem healthier for their children based on references to fruit on the packaging are being deceived," Leslie Mikkelsen, a registered dietician with the Strategic Alliance and lead author of the study, says. "Food and beverage companies are some of the most sophisticated communicators in the world and are clearly capable of accurately reflecting what is in their products if they wanted to."
"One of the biggest surprises was Yoplait's Strawberry Splash Go-Gurt Yogurt which does not contain any actual fruit," said Mikkelsen. "Yogurt is regarded by most people as being healthy, and one would naturally expect Strawberry Splash-flavored yogurt to contain strawberries, particularly when it is a food product advertised directly to children."
Berry Berry Kix is another product that, despite fruit images and reference to "natural fruit flavors," contains no fruit, according to the study.
The Strategic Alliance is calling on food manufacturers to stop marketing children's food products as something that they are not and to begin providing more nutritious food options.
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