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'Zero' food and drink may not be sugar-free, warns OCU
18/12/2018
CONSUMER organisation OCU has warned that 'zero'-branded food and soft drinks are not necessarily sugar-free.
No law is in force obliging manufacturers and brand designers to guarantee products labelled as 'zero' do not contain sugar, even though the average shopper would automatically assume this to be the case.
In many cases, 'zero' is merely an advertising message and is not linked to the nutritional content, the OCU reveals.
To guarantee food or drink is low in sugar, fat, salt or similar elements, consumers should look out for the words sin ('without'), bajo contenido ('low content'), bajo valor ('low amount'), or valor reducido en ('reduced'), none of which can be used as mere publicity claims and must, by law, be followed through in the ingredients used.
The OCU says manufacturers 'should not be allowed' to use labels in a font four or five times larger for the nature and quality of a product and then use much smaller print to explain the content when the advertising label leads the customer to believe this is something different – such as calling a product 'zero' in large letters, then in small typeface referring to the true sugar, fat or salt content.
Another trick is to use different colours for each of these texts, with the 'misleading' label in a brighter shade to draw attention to it.
In a bid to stamp out advertising that is deceptive – albeit not illegal – and to ensure consumers know what they are buying, the OCU has set up the Twitter hashtag #NoCuela ('Don't fall for it') enabling it to clarify ambiguous or false information concerning all types of products.
Consumers themselves can join in by sending the OCU details of any misleading or confusing packaging information so that it can be investigated, either by using the hashtag or emailing the organisation on nocuela@ocu.org.
Related Topics
CONSUMER organisation OCU has warned that 'zero'-branded food and soft drinks are not necessarily sugar-free.
No law is in force obliging manufacturers and brand designers to guarantee products labelled as 'zero' do not contain sugar, even though the average shopper would automatically assume this to be the case.
In many cases, 'zero' is merely an advertising message and is not linked to the nutritional content, the OCU reveals.
To guarantee food or drink is low in sugar, fat, salt or similar elements, consumers should look out for the words sin ('without'), bajo contenido ('low content'), bajo valor ('low amount'), or valor reducido en ('reduced'), none of which can be used as mere publicity claims and must, by law, be followed through in the ingredients used.
The OCU says manufacturers 'should not be allowed' to use labels in a font four or five times larger for the nature and quality of a product and then use much smaller print to explain the content when the advertising label leads the customer to believe this is something different – such as calling a product 'zero' in large letters, then in small typeface referring to the true sugar, fat or salt content.
Another trick is to use different colours for each of these texts, with the 'misleading' label in a brighter shade to draw attention to it.
In a bid to stamp out advertising that is deceptive – albeit not illegal – and to ensure consumers know what they are buying, the OCU has set up the Twitter hashtag #NoCuela ('Don't fall for it') enabling it to clarify ambiguous or false information concerning all types of products.
Consumers themselves can join in by sending the OCU details of any misleading or confusing packaging information so that it can be investigated, either by using the hashtag or emailing the organisation on nocuela@ocu.org.
Related Topics
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