Don’t Assume Similar Products Have the Same Ingredients

Our friend, Dana McCorvie, the Ingredient Inspector, scrutinizes product labels for changes and surprises in ingredients listings. This time, she looks at product line extensions where a manufacturer comes out with a similar product that plays on the popularity of the original one. But, when you check the ingredients of the fraternal twin, they are not always the same.

Example 1 – Minute Maid Lemonade

*MOUSE PRINT:

Minute Maid’s lemonade in cans has added chemicals and coloring compared to the version in cartons. But worse, while there is 12-percent real fruit juice in the regular product, the version in cans only has 3-percent juice.

Example 2 – Hi-C Orange Drink

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you buy juice boxes of Hi-C Orange Lavaburst at the supermarket, they actually contain some small amount of real juice, But if you order a glass of it at McDonald’s, that version has no real juice, almost 50-percent more sugar, and added chemicals and artificial colors!

For more examples of products whose fraternal twin products are not like the original, please visit this special section for Consumer World and Mouse Print* readers at the Ingredient Inspector.