Hidden sugars: when is healthy not so healthy?

Kraft Heinz has just been found guilty of misleading consumers with its so-called healthy toddler snack – Little Kidz Shredz – which was found to contain over two-thirds sugar, albeit derived from fruit.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) had brought the case against Kraft Heinz in 2016, claiming that the images and wording on the pack suggested that the products are healthy, when in fact they are high-sugar products, and a Federal Court has now supported the ACCC’s view.

The products are branded as Fruit & Veg  Shredz and the pack fronts boast that they are 99% fruit and vegetable. In addition, the back of the pack focuses on the nutritional value of Heinz Little Kidz toddler foods, claiming that they encourage toddlers to discover “the delicious taste of nutritious food”.

However, closer examination shows that the sugar content of the product is 68.7%. Although the products are indeed made from fruit and vegetables, only 20% of this is vegetables, while the remainder, rather than being pure fruit is comprised of fruit paste, fruit concentrate and fruit purée, which have much higher sugar contents than the equivalent fresh fruit.

That parents fall for the ‘nutritious’ angle is clear from a trawl of consumer reviews: time and again parents refer to the snacks as being healthy or nutritious, and a good way to get children to eat fruit and vegetables.

Yet the World Health Organization has stated that the amount of fruit juice concentrate should be limited to reduce the incidence of obesity and tooth decay – two scourges among today’s children.

Those of us who are parents have no doubt all tried to sneak some vegetables into our children by disguising them among other more attractive ingredients. But when it comes to big business that claims to have the welfare and nutrition of our babies at heart, it seems at best careless to make statements about the nutritional benefit of a product that is clearly high in sugar at a time when sugar is increasingly being seen as public enemy number one.

There is the danger that this kind of sleight-of-hand may actually kill the goose that laid the golden egg: toddler snacks are currently the most buoyant area of the baby food sector, but a consumer backlash against hidden sugar could taint a category showing healthy growth.