When is a strawberry not a strawberry?

Odd question, I know. But stick with this.

What does the above packet say?  Yogurt / fruit flakes / strawberry?  With a nice picture of a juicy strawberry.   Well isn’t that lovely?

We are told there are no artificial colours and flavours.  Super.  I don’t like artificial stuff in my food.

We are told “made with real fruit”.   Super.   I am on a bit of a health kick so extra fruit is great.

We are told “contains real yogurt”.   Super.   I like yogurt and won’t drip this one down my blouse.

We are told it “counts towards your five a day”.  Super.   Might get the kids eating it too then.

We are told the ingredients on the reverse, as is law.   Super

So whilst munching through these yesterday C and I had a discussion as I was actually going to do a blog post on something similar (more of that next week).

Yogurt flavoured coating (60%)

Hang on a minute.    It said “contains real yogurt” according to the big writing.    Why does the small writing refer to “yogurt flavoured coating”?     A closer inspection of that 60% goes on to break it down:

Sugar, vegetable oil, whey powder (from milk), rice flour, yogurt powder (3%), emulsifier (soya lecithins), glazing agent (shellack, gum arabic).

So 3%.   3% of this “Yogurt Fruit Flake” is actually yogurt?  And even then only yogurt powder?

Maybe this snack redeems itself with the fruit.   Let’s have a look shall we?

Strawberry Fruit Flakes (40%)

Ooh this sounds promising.    40% strawberry flakes.   Super.   Let’s just see what it says under that heading.

Fructose-glucose syrup, concentrated fruit puree (an average of 208g of apple and 13g of strawberry used to prepare 100g of fruit flakes), sugar, gluten free wheat fibre, vegetable fat, gelling agent (pectin), acidity regulator (malic acid), vegetable and fruit concentrated juices of carrot, pumpkin), natural flavouring.

Are you concentrating on the same figure as me?   Only 13g of strawberries versus 208g of apple are used in this product.

So how can it be marketed with a great big strawberry on the front?

We have 200g of fruit mush producing 100g of further fruit mush and just 13g of that original mush is strawberry.   So does that mean that it’s 6g of the 100g?

How can something that doesn’t actually contain yogurt or  a significant amount of strawberries carry either of those things on the packaging?  And be named as such.   Look again at that packet.  It shows a strawberry.

It isn’t strawberry, and it isn’t yogurt.    It’s sugar, fructose syrup, more sugar and a bunch of chemicals.   And more apple than strawberry.    And pumpkin?!

The packaging  states “made in a factory that also handles nuts”.

Yep, they are called the Marketing Department.