'Fresh' food that isn't fresh. 'Natural' colours that are chemicals and 'real' fruit juice that only 5 per cent fruit
By ALEX RENTON
By ALEX RENTON
A few days ago, I was out food shopping with my five-year-old daughter, Lulu. ‘Daddy,’ she squealed, rushing up to me with a box of Mr Kipling’s vanilla-filled Angel cake slices in her hand, ‘can I have these, please?’I glanced at the packaging quickly. Even in the midst of a rushed family shop, I was still concerned — as many parents would be — about the food I’m feeding my daughter.
‘No artificial colours or flavours. No hydrogenated fat,’ it read in large letters on the front. Reassured, I popped the packet in our trolley.
But back in the comfort of home, I took a closer look (and I needed my reading glasses for the small print) and pretty quickly concluded that I’d been had.
While the packet claimed there were no ‘artificial’ colours, I found — under a tiny heading of colourings — ‘titanium dioxide, cochineal and lutein’, chemical compounds I’d never heard of before (and more of which later).
And while it also insisted there were no artificial flavours, why couldn’t I find any real vanilla extract, when the cakes were so clearly labelled ‘with a delicious vanilla filling’?
In fact, the number of ingredients in the cakes totalled 35, of which almost none I’d ever heard of before.
So far, so utterly confusing. But it turns out I’m not alone.
Last week, a survey by consumer watchdog Which? found that food label claims such as ‘pure’, ‘fresh’, ‘non-artificial’, ‘natural’ and ‘real’ are largely unregulated and are confusing shoppers.
For example, 33 per cent of shoppers thought ‘real fruit’ meant fruit was the main ingredient (even though this was wildly off the mark); and 43 per cent believed products labelled ‘juice drink’ must contain at least a quarter fruit juice (again, something they found to be untrue, with some juice drinks containing barely 5 per cent juice from concentrate).
So how and why are our food manufacturers allowed to get away with this? And what is the truth about our ‘natural’ food labels?
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