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Action on Sugar

Why any nutrition and health claims on children’s food and drink with moderate or high levels of sugar is a problem

By Dr Kawther Hashem, Campaign Lead for Action on Sugar and Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London

Yogurts – a real bug bear of mine. Sure, they can be nutritious, and are often promoted as part of a healthy diet even by the Governments own nutrition campaign Change4Life, but boy can they be misleading.  

Claims such as ‘a source of protein, calcium and vitamin D’ or ‘fruit flavoured’ dominate food packaging and may easily distract busy parents. Even as a registered nutritionist myself, I often fall into the trap when rushing into a supermarket with my little one and forget to scrutinise the product further. And I am not alone. 

Indeed, research carried out by Public Health England in 2018 found that customers did not feel it was necessary to examine nutrition labels more closely if the labelling suggested it was a healthy product - this is known as a health halo. 

To my astonishment, this category was more misleading than I had ever expected. I had to keep checking the product packaging as I was questioned by colleagues as to whether they are as misleading as I was suggesting. They were. 

If you don’t believe me, here are some examples for you to judge yourself: 

  • Nestlé Munch Bunch Double Up Fromage Frais Strawberry & Vanilla - contains 11g sugar per 100g and 9.4g sugar per serve and would get an amber front of pack label if it used the colour-coded labelling system, instead the company only chooses to signpost the energy content per pot on the front of pack. The pack champions very clearly in font size bigger than anything else on the pack that the product is a source of calcium, vitamin D and contains no artificial colours and preservatives. But it contains a significant amount of added sugar – after fromage frais, the next main ingredient on the ingredients list is sugar (before fruit puree), and on top of that it also contains caramelised sugar syrup too. Perhaps it would be more honest to state it is a ‘good source of added sugar! However, at least this product actually contains some fruit, reflecting its product name, it contains a whopping 2.3% strawberry puree.  
  • Aldi Brooklea Tube It Strawberry Flavour Yogurt - contains 11g sugar per 100g and 8.1g sugar per serve, would also receive an amber label, which the company do at least declare on the front of the pack. However, alongside this they state the product is a source of calcium and vitamin D, despite it just being sweetened with added sugar and containing no fruit whatsoever, yes even though the product name states it is strawberry flavour, again to mislead parents into thinking it contains fruit goodness. It seems companies can use fruit flavour in a product, without using any fruit.  It would be more correct to call this sugar yogurt with added vitamin D and calcium. 
  • Yoplait Frubes Strawberry, Red Berry and Peach Flavour Yogurt - contains 10.8g sugar per 100g and 8g sugar per serve, would also receive an amber colour on front of pack for sugar if it declared it on the front of the pack. However, the company chooses to instead boast that it is a Source of Calcium & Vitamin D’, Source of Protein’, Good Stuff Inside. Sugar again is the second ingredient and yet again the product contains no fruit, yes that’s right - no strawberry, no red berry and no peach, just strawberry, red berry and peach flavour, whatever that is 
  • ASDA Strawberry Fromage Frais Pouches - contains 7.6g sugar per 100g and 6.1g sugar per serve, and would receive an amber, which it declares on front of pack like most responsible supermarkets now do. Again the product states it is a source of calcium, vitamin D and high in protein. Unlike those above however, this product does at least contain 10% strawberry puree, followed with sugar as the third ingredient. Perhaps this is why this product contains at least 30% less sugar, because it does contain fruit. 

Note; fruit purees still count as free sugars and will need to be limited. So whenever possible, it is best to offer children plain yogurt with added chopped fruit or choose products with the lowest levels of sugars, which are actually really hard to find - we found 5 products out of 100! Yes, only 5 children’s products would receive a green, healthy categorisation label for added free sugars.  

This sector has avoided scrutiny for far too long, but we’re looking closely at the labels now, get honest yogurts! 

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