Lemon puffs and blackcurrant wafers. Do they actually contain the fruit as their ingredients?
The Consumer Council has conducted a survey of wide range of prepackaged food products with names or representation suggesting the presence of fruit ingredients. The products included biscuits, cakes, yoghurt, and frozen confectionery.
The verdict: the situation is one of possible confusion to consumers who are unable to determine with any precision the nature or quantity of the fruit content of some of these products.
In the case of the lemon puffs and blackcurrant wafers, for example, some of them were found to contain only the flavouring and not the actual fruit.
Their ingredient lists were labelled "lemon flavour" and "blackcurrant flavour" but this was not reflected in their names as "lemon flavoured puff" and "blackcurrant flavoured wafer".
The Council also came across overseas cases like blueberry waffles with no blueberries or strawberry yoghurt with no strawberries - but only their flavouring.
It is stipulated in the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations that the food name or designation shall not be false, misleading or deceptive in any respect as to the nature of the food.
Accordingly, the Consumer Council has referred these and other samples covered in the survey to the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) for inspection for possible breach of the law. The CFS has since issued 7 warning letters to the traders concerned.
The Regulations stipulate also that food "labelling" includes any trade mark, brandname, pictoral matter or symbol relating to the food and appearing on the package of the food. Also the ingredients of prepackaged food should be listed in descending order of weight or volume.
The Regulations, however, do not restrict food products without fruit but only its flavouring to present picture or image of the fruit on the package. The labelling of the percentage of the ingredients is also not normally required.
In the survey, the Council found that although the names of some products are not in breach of the Regulations, they may cause confusion to consumers as illustrated in the following:-
- A biscuit product carrying words of "orange and sultana", "filled with sultana and orange", as well as picture of orange and grape on the package, was labelled on the ingredient list only "orange concentrate".
- A cake product with the word and picture of "blackcurrant" on the package but the relevant ingredient was only "blackcurrant juice concentrate" labelled well after "blackcurrant flavouring" on the ingredient list.
Consumers should take note that food products added with fruit or fruit flavours normally contain only a minimal amount of fruit. They should not depend on these products as a replacement for fresh fruit for nutrients and disease prevention.
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