Ribena: A vitamin C-free drink

Thanks to years of advertising by the brand owners, most people believe Ribena is a healthy drink choc full of vitamin C.

After being found to be misleading the public, GlaxoSmithKline was ordered by the Commerce Commission to run 1/2 page advertisements in national newspapers during April to correct that.

The company had claimed ready-to-drink Ribena contains 44% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C, whereas it actually has no detectable vitamin C at all.

The Commerce Commission also found that advertisements claiming the blackcurrants in Ribena had four times the vitamin C of oranges, while true, were likely to mislead people about Ribena. (As we pointed out in the April issue of HFG, standard Ribena only contains 6.4% fruit juice and Ribena Light, 5%).

This decision highlights how tricky label reading can be, and that it’s important to read the small print on labels, not just the marketing claims.