3 replies to this topic

[Cosettejsewell]

My dad recently bought some energy drinks, which on the can claim to have “zero artificial colors” and “zero artificial flavors.” However, when you read the ingredient list it contains sucralose & acesulfame potassium which are both artificial flavors. While it doesn’t have any artificial colors it does contain artificial flavors. Forgive me for being naive. But is this legal? The can is misleading, especially for someone trying to cut back on artificial flavors. Can something be done to change this?

[pHruit]

What country are you in? I'm assuming the US based on the subforum you've posted in, but regulations around labelling, claims etc are not the same globally.

 

In general both sucralose and ace K are sweeteners rather than flavourings though, and that is the case in terms of regulation in the EU/UK and I believe also in the US, Canada, Australia etc.

Again, I'm not intricately familiar with US labelling requirements, but it seems factually correct to state that neither of these substances are artificial flavourings, and thus a product that uses these plus natural flavourings (in accordance with whatever the local regulatory definition of a 'natural' flavouring is) could truthfully state that it does not contain artificial flavourings.

 

FWIW the types of flavourings used would be the least of my concerns as far as energy drinks go

[GMO]

Agree. To my understanding they are sweeteners not flavourings.

[SQFconsultant]

yeah, they are sweeteners. I'd be skipping energy drinks however  because they contain all sorts of nasties regardless of color or flavors.

 

In our new stores we banned energy drinks that contain HEK293, a flavoring which is considered natural even though it came originally from the liver cells of an aborted baby boy.

 

By the way, Pepsi put this in some of their drinks years ago but once some stockholders got wind of it they canceled it out - and they had gotten away with calling it natural flavoring.