- 07/12/2017
- Posted by: Marta
- Categories: Questions and Answers, News
Eminent lawyer,
I appreciated some of your critical notes on the labels of Austrian fruit-flavored drinks and I propose that you resume the subject with the Rauch - Bravo branded drink, of which I am attaching photos.
Many thanks and good luck
Herbert
The lawyer Dario Dongo, PhD in European food law, answers
Dear Herbert,
the Austrian fruit juice manufacturers and similar drinks actually tend to go 'over the top', indeed 'beyond the rules'.
Pfanner misled consumers - as we have seen - under at least two profiles:
- the daring comparison between a glass of juice and the recommended daily rations of fruit and vegetables,
- the unlawful indication of origin 'predominantly' from Sicily the blood oranges of one of his drinks.
Rauch enters the wake of deception with the drink under consideration. Which is presented with the suggestive wording '! A tutti frutti!', On the front of the label, next to the images of blood orange and carrot.
The ingredient list reveals it though that Rauch's 'Bravo' drink is by no means 'all fruit'. On the contrary, water appears as the first ingredient, followed by 30% of 'multifruit juice', then sugar, etc.
Without going into the merits of the confused name of the food and of its components, in turn worthy of censorship under various aspects, we must instead point out the deceptiveness of the presentation of the product.
A sweetened drink with 10 grams of sugar per 100 ml - slightly inferior to Coca Cola - is presented as 'full of fruit'. In clear contrast with the general requirements of transparency of the information on the label, (1) as well as with the Advertising Self-Regulatory Code (2) and with the Consumer Code. (3)
Cordially
Dario
Footnotes
(1) See reg. EU 1169/11, articles 7 and 36
(2) 'Commercial communication must avoid any declaration or representation that is such as to mislead consumers, including by means of omissions, ambiguities or exaggerations that are not clearly hyperbolic, especially as regards the characteristics and effects of the product.'(Advertising Self-Regulatory Code, article 2)
(3) See Legislative Decree 206/05, articles 20-21
