ASA bars smoothie web claim
Love Taste Co’s web content recommended that its fruit pouches should be mixed with 200ml of apple juice. It stated that, after blending for 30 seconds: “Each one gives you 2.5 of your five-a-day.” However, a complaint was lodged about the claim.
The London-based company, which makes frozen fruit smoothies, frappés and fruit teas, argued NHS guidance advised that 80g of fruit and 150ml of juice were each equivalent to one fruit portion. Its smoothies contained 140g of fruit and vegetables, it said. Once juice was added, it calculated the blend was 20g short of three portions of fruit and veg.
‘Five-a-day’ criteria
It also provided a link to an online article about a competitor’s smoothie range, citing a government department saying it could not stop firms creating their own ‘five-a-day’ logo and criteria.
But the ASA noted that only three of the firm’s pouches contained 80g or more of one variety of fruit or vegetable. Such a quantity would be needed for the smoothies to claim more than one of the recommended five daily portions of fruit and veg, it argued.
“Government guidance also required that the juice was a different variety of fruit or vegetable than the other ingredients in the pouch in order to qualify as an additional portion,” it said.
‘Did not make it clear’
The advert “did not make it clear that the juice needed to be from a different type of fruit or vegetable from those in the pouch ingredients”, the ASA added.
Nor did it state that “at least 150ml of juice should be added, or that juice should be 100% fruit or vegetable juice, which were also requirements of the government's five-a-day criteria”.
As a result of these points, the ASA said that the ad was misleading and guilty of exaggeration, according to the terms of the Committee of Advertising Practice’s (CAP) code.
“The ad must not appear in its current form,” the ASA concluded. “We told Love Taste Co to ensure that claims about the number of recommended portions of fruit and vegetables in their products were not misleadingly exaggerated.”
