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Paul Nelson reportingA new report says juice labels may not be as clear as they need to be. Some customers say they're not getting what they expected.
If you go to the juice aisle in the market, you can find lots of cartons that say "100 percent juice." I showed two of these to Salt Lake City resident Jane Green. First, I showed her Dole's Pina Colada, marked 100 percent juice. What was the first ingredient? "Filtered water," Jane said.
Wait, what was that?
"Filtered water, apple juice concentrate, pineapple juice concentrate, clarified pineapple juice concentrate, natural flavors, and banana puree and coconut water," she read.
So, even though the box says "100 percent juice," it also says they add flavors to it. I also showed her a bottle of Minute Maid Fortified Orange Juice, which also was marked "100 percent." The first ingredient in that also was water.
Realistically, it's the same process as making juice from concentrate at home; water is the primary ingredient there as well. But Green says these labels feel misleading. "It's supposed to be 100 percent orange juice," she said.
Consumer Reports magazine says there are plenty of people who feel like Green. So much so, they did a story about it.
Consumer Reports Associate Health Editor Jamie Hirsh said, "Disgruntled readers were writing in to us and sending in their complaints and also their labels."
Hirsh says some people complained that they thought they were buying a particular kind of juice, but it turned out to be something else. "One of the readers whose complaint we cited in the lead of the article, she had bought a Sunny D product that said ‘Orange Fused Pineapple' on the front of the label and it turned out that the product had no pineapple juice in it at all," she said.
Hirsh says another reader bought a Veryfine Fruit2O drink thinking there was some juice in it, but it turned out to be just flavored, caffeinated water. "Had she turned the bottle around, she would have seen it says, ‘Zero percent juice' on the nutrition facts panel, but she was kind of duped and got home and realized her mistake," Hirsch said.
Hirsh says that simple check of the back label shows you exactly what you're drinking. She says "light" juices, which have less sugar, are basically just watered-down regular juices, and it's probably cheaper to water down your drinks at home.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
