Love That Label - misleading beverage labels - Brief Article

Nutrition Action Healthletter, July, 2001 by Bonnie Liebman

You gotta hand it to Fruit Works. The elegant hues of its labels are to die for. Even the color of the beverage is appealing.

And then there are the words. What would you expect from a "Strawberry Melon Non-Carbonated Real Fruit Beverage" with "100% Vitamin C" made by a company called Fruit Works? A bottle of strawberry and melon juice, perhaps?

Here's a hint: Fruit Works is owned by Pepsi. The "Real Fruit Beverage" turns out to be 95 percent sugar and water. It's rive percent pear juice--the government requires the label to say so--spiked with vitamins, Red 40 and Blue 1 food dyes, and preservatives. The only strawberries or melons are in the lovely drawing on the label. Maybe that's what the label means when it says "Naturally Flavored With Other Natural Flavors."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]