Cancer Council NSW has surveyed 762 products in four food categories to investigate the fruit and vegetable claims on packages – fruit snacks, soups, fruit and/or vegetable juices and fruit and/or vegetable drinks. It then used nutrient profiling to assess the healthfulness of the products and published its report in Public Health Nutrition.
The results have led the Council to urge the Australian government to strengthen the Food Standards Code to regulate fruit and vegetable claims on food labels.
It found that only a third passed the nutrient profiling criteria that would enable them to make health claims under the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code. Fruit and vegetable claims are not regulated under the code because they refer to specific ingredients rather than nutrients.
More than 80% of the fruit and vegetable drinks and 79% of the fruit snacks did not meet nutrient profiling. Juices and fruits were more likely to have nutritional value, with only 10% of the soups and less than 1% of juices failing to meet nutrient profiling.
48% of the packaged fruit and vegetable products surveyed made health claims on their packaging, despite some having as little as 13% fruit content and therefore possibly negligible nutritional value. The products came from household brands and lunchbox favourites.
Less healthy products were also found to be more likely to carry fruit and vegetable claims than healthier products. 78% of less healthy foods carried marketing claims compared to only 39% of the healthier foods surveyed. Those that made the claims had more energy, sodium, saturated fat and sugar and less fibre than fresh fruit and vegetables.
Clare Hughes, co-author of the report and nutrition program manager at Cancer Council NSW, Clare Hughes, stated, “A key aim of the research was to compare the nutrient composition of the products carrying the claims with the nutrient composition of the primary fruit and/or vegetable noted in each product. What we found was that these products contained much less dietary fibre and much more energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium than their fresh fruit or vegetable equivalent, making them a poor substitute for the real thing.”
“Fruit and vegetables are important both in cancer prevention and helping people to maintain a healthy weight. Dietary guidelines encourage Australians to eat two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables each day, so food companies are cashing-in on this by clearly highlighting the fruit and vegetable content in their processed products.
“However, rather than helping to boost Australians’ fruit and vegetable intake, fruit and vegetable claims on packaging are encouraging them to choose highly processed and often unhealthy foods as a way of meeting their fruit and vegetable requirements.
“We know that more than half of Australian adults are not eating enough fruit and alarmingly more than 90 per cent are not eating enough vegetables. Despite what the labels say, we shouldn’t rely on these drinks, sugary fruit snacks and salty soups to meet our daily needs. Nothing beats the real thing.
“We need tighter regulation of products that may lead Australians to believe they are contributing positively to their recommended two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables per day, where instead they are consuming less fibre, and more energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium.”
