Vitamin C or not to C?

A curious case of the Ribena vitamins. Does it contain Vitamin C or not? In New Zealand, it has caused a stir. GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Ribena, pleaded guilty in Auckland District Court to making incorrect health claims. This comes three years after two Auckland teenagers found the drink contained almost no trace of vitamin C. So they couldn't find Vitamin C?

GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty and admitted it may have misled consumers in adverts that said blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges. May have misled? Didn't they know? In the UK, the company is stating that Vitamin C in the "UK Original Ready to Drink Ribena (288ml) provides 115% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA)." So it does have Vitamin C, then?

So how come the girls in New Zealand found none? I heard on the radio that Glaxo suggested "the product had degraded on the shelf". So they bought a duff bottle? See how the blame shifts.

I think in the light of all this we should get an independent tester to verify 1. Whether there is Vitamin C in Ribena and 2. if there is, does it degrade on the shelves of shops selling it before the sell-by-date?

Another giant plc trying to blame the poor punter! Who will it be next week?

Posted in: GlaxoSmithKline,New Zealand,Ribena