KEY POINTS:
The case against Ribena has heightened concerns that misleading health claims are being made for a range of foods, says marketing professor Janet Hoek.
GlaxoSmithKline was on Tuesday fined $227,500 in the Auckland District Court, for misleading claims about the levels of vitamin C in Ribena.
It was ordered to place corrective advertising in newspapers after admitting 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.
GlaxoSmithKline admitted that its ready-to-drink Ribena, which its labelling said contained 7mg of vitamin C per 100ml, in fact had no detectable vitamin C content.
It also admitted it might have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges.
When properly diluted, Ribena has about 1.5 times the vitamin C of comparable orange drinks. Tests have also showed it has more sugar than Coca-Cola.
Professor Hoek said there was a danger the incident would be seen in isolation, when there were lessons to be learned.
"It doesn't take more than an educated guess to realise that other food products marketed as beneficial to health, for example by being low in fat or sugar, may also be misleadingly or deceptively labelled."
The use of health-related claims had a very clear potential to mislead and deceive consumers, she said.
"The Ribena case highlights the need for clear food labelling such as a traffic lights system, where consumers do not need to interpret complex nutrition information before making a purchase decision."
It was disturbing that schoolgirls Jenny Suo and Anna Devathasan, who did the initial tests on the product in 2004, said they were brushed off when they took their findings to the company, the Advertising Standards Authority and marketing organisation Brandpower, she said.
However, consumers were now more aware of the danger of obesity and the importance of having access to correct and easily accessible information about food.
People were exposed to many advertising claims, at least some of which they accept at face value, she said.
"Consumers become conditioned to respond to claims such as 'lite' or 'high-fibre', which imply a product is healthy when it may, for example, contain very high sugar levels.
"Marketers are adept at using puffery to imply benefits that do not exist."
She called for more research to explore how consumers accessed, used, understood and responded to health claims.
Professor Hoek has researched consumer deception and public policy issues, including the effects of food marketing on obesity, and the impact of misleading descriptions on tobacco products.
Meanwhile, Charlie's Trading Company owners Marc Ellis and Stefan Lepionka have offered Miss Devathasan and Miss Suo work experience at their juice company.
"At Charlie's we applaud honesty, so we want to give those two teenage Kiwi girls work experience at our company," Mr Ellis said.
"It took these two trustworthy teenagers to triumph over the giants of our industry and out the truth on one juice company to consumers at last.
"With other companies out there committing similar claim-crimes, we reckon these girls could make a healthy career out of it."
Charlie's had spoken to Pakuranga College to discuss the girls coming to the company.
- NZPA
