From ketchup to jam, apple juice is in more products than you think. What’s the reason for that? | Food & Knowledge

Avid fruit juice drinkers may be aware of this, but it comes as a surprise to the average consumer: multi-fruit juice or juice from tropical fruit appears to mainly contain apple juice. Innocent’s ‘Tropical’ juice, for example, consists of 54 percent apple juice. Pineapple accounts for barely 12 percent of the content, mango only 1.5 percent and passion fruit a mere 1 percent. And yet a mango steals the show on the label, half an apple can only be seen hidden in the background.

We see the same thing with juices from house brands such as Albert Heijn and Delhaize. For example, Delhaize’s multivitamin juice contains 79 percent juice from concentrate, of which 63 percent comes from apples. Or take Tropicana’s tropical juice mixture, which consists of no less than 73 percent apple juice. There is little tropical about that.

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“It is actually true that a number of tropical fruit juices contain quite a bit of apple juice,” acknowledges Philip Buisseret, secretary general of VIWF, the sector association of the Belgian water and soft drinks industry. “This is mainly done to balance dominant flavors of, for example, pineapple or mango and thus achieve an accessible result.”

Although money also plays a role. “In our region, apple juice is very easily available and therefore less expensive, and it is an excellent natural sweetener. Many producers therefore choose apple juice as a stabilizer. In a country like Spain, for example, it is more likely to be orange juice.”

Laura Claeys from Testaankoop also emphasizes the financial side. “It’s actually a good example of shrinkflation,” she says. The spokesperson refers to the phenomenon whereby the price of a product remains stable or increases, while the quality of the product decreases, for example because certain ingredients in the recipe are replaced by cheaper alternatives.

It is a natural way to increase sugar levels without simply adding sugar

Bruno De Meulenaer (UGent)

The fact that fruit juices contain apples is not in itself that strange. But you will also find apple juice or apple juice concentrate in the ingredients of, among other things, Devos Lemmens ketchup and in the jam and fruit toppings of ‘wild blueberries’ from Fiordifrutta. “I suspect that apple juice concentrate is mainly used as a sweetener in those cases,” says Bruno De Meulenaer, professor in the Department of Food Technology, Food Safety and Health at Ghent University. “Apples contain sucrose, glucose and the extra sweet fructose. It is a natural way to increase sugar levels without simply adding sugar. That looks healthier.”

“Apple juice is also a natural gelling agent, but we see that both the ketchup and the fruit topping already use a thickening agent, namely modified starch and pectin. So this is mainly about the sweet taste. An additional advantage is that extra sugar in the form of apple juice will also extend the shelf life of the products,” he continues.

Apple juice as a natural sweetener instead of added sugar doesn’t sound bad. But anyone who buys a tropical juice does not expect it to contain mainly apple juice. Can we then speak of consumer fraud? “There are clear rules for fruit juices,” says Lien Meurisse, spokesperson for the FPS Economy.

“For juices containing two or more fruits, the product must be named according to the fruits used and these must be listed in descending order of volume used. But as soon as a juice contains three or more fruits, the designation may be replaced by a kind of collective name.” The latter category includes multi-fruit juices and tropical fruit juices.

The image must not be misleading. So you are not allowed to depict pineapple on fruit juice that does not contain pineapple at all

Lien Meurisse, FPS Economy

The ingredients must be clearly stated on the label. “All ingredients in the juice must be listed in descending order of weight, with the percentage added,” says Meurisse. If a tropical fruit juice consists mainly of apple, then apple juice or apple juice concentrate should be at the beginning of the ingredients list.

There is more discussion about the images on the label. “There is a guideline from the FPS Economy for the use of images and mentions of flavors in products,” says Meurisse. “It states that the image may not be misleading. So you are not allowed to depict pineapple on fruit juice that does not contain pineapple at all. However, the label is assessed as a whole, together with the ingredients list.”

So it’s not a black and white issue. “If the ingredients list clearly states apple juice, it is difficult to take legal action against it, even if it feels like misleading,” we hear from Testaankoop. What can you do as a consumer? “Be sure to read the ingredients list carefully, so that you know what you are buying,” Meurisse concludes.

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