Fruit tea full of fruit? Certainly yes while looking at the packaging. However, after reading the ingredients it is evident that the product contains aromas instead of expected fruit…
The issue also relates to other food commodities that are often aromatized. They are fruit beverages, flavoured milk drinks, yoghurts or cereal mixtures. Thanks to image features on packaging, consumers expect that the product contains real fruit ingredients or, at least, natural substances gained from fruit intended for aromatizing.
Based on the proposal for investigation concerning graphics of fruit tea packaging, the European Court of Justice delivered judgement where the situation was assessed as misleading labelling. The court statement implies that images of ingredients that are not contained in the product or are contained only in the form of artificial aromas cannot be presented on food packaging.
This decision will eliminate emphasizing of ingredients that are not actually present in the food. Consumers will not be misled on the first sight that they buy a product with fruit content.
The essential idea in food labelling is to inform, to protect and not to mislead consumers. The most appropriate is to state exact data and features that characterize given product, its contents and origin best.
Source: Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic
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