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How this Juice Confused a Supreme Court Justice

June 24, 2014   20 Comments

Snack Girl may not be the brightest bulb in the bunch but she thinks she knows a scam when she sees it.

Minute Maid Pomegranate Blueberry

I would NEVER presume to say that I am smarter than a Supreme Court such as Justice Kennedy, but I am (perhaps) more practiced at buying juice than he is.

This juice, Minute Maid Pomegranate Blueberry, has only 0.3 percent pomegranate juice and 0.2 percent blueberry juice. Read the label and the ingredients are:

APPLE, GRAPE AND POMEGRANATE JUICES FROM CONCENTRATE, FRUIT AND VEGETABLE JUICES (FOR COLOR), BLUEBERRY JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE, NATURAL FLAVORS, RASPBERRY JUICE FROM CONCENTRATE, MODIFIED GUM ACACIA, DHA ALGAL OIL, VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID), CITRIC ACID (PROVIDES TARTNESS), CHOLINE BITARTRATE, VITAMIN E (ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE), SOY LECITHIN, VITAMIN B12

The first ingredient is “apple juice” which will tell you that it isn’t “pomegranate blueberry” but truly apple juice with a wee bit of pomegranate and blueberry juices. Any juice buyer, such as myself, would know that ☺

Here is an exchange from the Supreme Court:

Kathleen M. Sullivan, a lawyer for Coca-Cola, said consumers were not misled: “We don’t think that consumers are quite as unintelligent as Pom must think they are. They know when something is a flavored blend of five juices and the non-predominant juices are just a flavor.”

Justice Kennedy frowned: “Don’t make me feel bad, because I thought that this was pomegranate juice.”

The courtroom erupted in laughter, and Justice Antonin Scalia ribbed his colleague: “He sometimes doesn’t read closely enough.”

Yeahhhh. I bet he doesn’t read closely enough, that slacker, Kennedy. Except that my guess would be he has to READ all day and pay attention to the details to be a Supreme Court justice.

Why was this case in front of the court? Pom Wonderful, makers of pomegranate juice, wants to sue Coca-Cola because they believe this is false advertising. The court said, “Yes, Pom Wonderful you can sue them.”

The FDA, which monitors labels on behalf of consumers, cannot touch Minute Maid because they can only go after “false claims”. For example, if the juice had no pomegranate in it, the FDA can fine them and force them to change the label.

But, now, because of this decision, companies can sue each other over misleading labels.

I have been angered over many ridiculous label claims. Now, all I have to do is find companies willing to take on their competitors in the courts to get the labels to change.

And, we all know that the claim “Support Brain and Body” is fine. I mean look at the nutrition facts:

8 ounces is 130 calories, 0 g fat, 0.0 g saturated fat, 31.0 g carbohydrates, 29 g sugar, 0 g protein, 0 g fiber, 20 mg sodium, 3 Points+

All that sugar will be very good for my body and brain because I write and you know writers need sugar or else we start writing terrible sentences like this one.

This juice, sadly enough, has two more grams per sugar in it than the same serving of Coke.

I did try it and it doesn’t taste anything like pomegranate. It tastes like fruit punch.

What do you think of Minute Maid Pomegranate Blueberry?

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20 Comments:

I'd also add that if there's 0 fat, the amount of omegas is pretty pathetic. Just sayin.

100% fruit juice BLEND. Blend should be the clue!

I didn't think it was possible to cram more sugar into a glass of liquid than the amount in a Coke!

Good for the court allowing for a lawsuit!

-Laura

Funny, growing up in the fifties, we drank milk with every meal. Real milk that was delivered to house and it wasn't 1-2 or 0% either, just whole milk with the cream on top. We rarely drank juices except a small juice sized glass of pure orangejuice for breakfast. We were all skinny. Today babies are fed juice around the clock. They carry sippy cups with juice in them all day long. Everywhere you go you can see babies in strollers with trays pull of crackers, cereal and treats of all kinds and that SIPPY CUP! No wonder the kids today are overweight and hyper...Why do mothers let their children GRAZE all day long. When I was a child, we played outside for hours without ever asking or getting a drink except for maybe water. We ate 3 meals and if you didn't like what was served, you went without till the next meal PERIOD. Parents did not cater to the kids. Give them milk instead. I will bet they would be better off drinking the fat in the milk rather than all that sugar in those juices.............

Good post, Barbara. I also grew up in the fifties and I think you are correct about grazing. Also, the hidden sugars in our foods are making us adults fat, now.

I really wish people would be reasonable about "all that sugar in those juices". Number one, this is not a product I would buy, however I will buy things like 100% orange juice by Simply Orange. If you look at the nutrition facts label, it has 23g of sugars. This is naturally occurring sugar that is in oranges people! I am glad that the new nutrition labels may be able to clarify this for people by separating out added sugars from the naturally occurring sugars in fruit and milk!! The natural fructose and lactose that occur in 100% juice and plain white milk have no business being compared to Coke! 100% fruit juice is fine in small quantities...a serving size of 1/2 to 1 cup for the day....not the 12-16oz of orange juice people guzzle down for breakfast! I prefer to chew my fruit, but a 4oz serving of OJ with my oats and skim milk for breakfast hits the spot and is perfectly healthy. If you want to compare sugars, then compare kool aid to coke, not 100% fruit juice.

If only you were correct. That orange juice has been sitting around so long that they have to add 'flavor packs' to it to make it palatable. I really, really, really miss juice - especially orange juice. But none of the stuff sold in the store as juice is good for you.

so glad that you OUT these lies(misleading)from MAJOR food manufacturers! please keep us informed about the direction POM goes after coke. I used to think that fruit juice consecrate was pure juice until you educated me. Thanks Snack Girl for letting us know the real story!

Anyone who truly wants to know about the deadly affects of sugar should check out "sugar, the bitter truth" on You Tube. Sugar is the new crack cocaine of this generation! Scary and very sad.

Another factor I have heard about in concentrated juices (not sure if it's true) is that they don't always rehydrate it all the way so you are getting extra flavor and extra sugar. One glass may have the sugar of several pieces of fruit, but almost none of the fiber, and since things like calcium and vitamins are lost in the processing, the juices must be fortified to be able to claim the health benefits of fruit. Definitely sad, because I love juice, but I think I mostly love it because it is such a sugar bomb. We dilute it by 50% with water at my house and don't even notice the difference anymore (I can drink the full strength now it is too strong!)

Love your sarcasm. I mean really I must try this since my body and brain need a lot of support.

People PLEASE all this talk about sugar really?? I mean I don't care what you are eating there is probably sugar in it somewhere.Lets not forget the food producers ok.They are in the business of making money ,more and more money.They don't care one dam bit about my health or yours.It is all about the dollar.That's it the money is all that counts.They have all been hiding horrible things that they put in the food, ingredients they know are bad for us but they don't care,and never will.Yes, growing up with the food we had was great,but we are in a whole different place now.Nothing is true, nothing is honest, everything is full of deceit and lies.Please wake up this is the world we have all created.

I have not bought Minute Maid in about 40 Years. It is expensive and I don't get the fiber from processed fruit drinks. Why would anybody waste their money on this? There is no added sugar, this is sugar from the fruit and it does say fruit blend but I still would not buy it. I buy Welch's Grape juice for our blood sugar lows otherwise I make a smoothie with ice and whole fruits. Grape juice doesn't work as fast as apple juice because it is lower in sugar but we like it better. I read all the labels of processed food or just don't buy it. Make a smoothie from some berries or mangoes, much better.

Your humor really made me lol! XD I agree that there is far too much false advertising...and there's a lot of that with the "organic" label as well. Yes companies paid the USDA a lot of money to get them to test that they're fully organic or whatever, but organic doesn't mean the best either. Sadly my dad is under the impression that organic is the be all and end all of foods - he bought Ocean Spray Craisins because it said "organic" on it. Well it is organic - the ingred list was organic cranberry and organic SUGAR. The nutrition label indicated that it has 29g of sugar per 1/4th cup serving size, with a total of 130 calories per serving. wtf! He bought 3 bags from costco and i took one from him and now i really regret it because it is DISGUSTING. My breakfast every day has been 100% rolled oats soaked in some almond milk (I make my own now! so easy omg), and i tried to put the craisins in there to rehydrate and make my breakfast taste a little sweeter. Usually by the time I'm eating my breakfast after the oats are more dried, the cranberries seemed to have separated or something, 'cause it taste sugary and kinda gross. :\

in any case, he also bought organic raisins that had the same nutrition content (130 calories for 1/4th cup serving with 29g of sugar), but the ingred list was just organic raisin, no added sugar. hopefully that one is at least marginally better because he freakin bought 10 boxes (each box has 2 bags)!!! ~_~ I tried to get him to start reading labels now, because man, the kind of crap they put in these foods...

I think if I wanted to drink fruit punch I'd look for fruit punch. I typically don't buy Minute Maid because most of their juices are blends. I guess I'm a bit of a juice snob, my kids and I like 100% juice with little or no added sugar. We mix it with seltzer sometimes.

Juice always seems like a better beverage choice than soda, but a good reminder that we all really need to read the labels more closely.

I'm sure Snack Girl, that you know this, but everyone else needs to understand that sugar is sugar and the body only knows it as that, PERIOD. It is very important to watch how many grams of sugar you consume in a day and one of the biggest culprits of sugar consumption are beverages, whether juice or soda. It is best to not consume either at all. Everyone should drink water and have the later as an occasional treat. Nutritionally, there is nothing beneficial in juice that you can't get from the whole fruit instead!

read. labels. people.

this should be every serious food shopper's mantra!

just finished the book "the sugar smart diet" by ann

alexander. a revelation as to where all the 'sneaky sugars' are hiding in our food. eat an orange vs. drinking OJ. you get the benefits of fiber along with the ginormous amount of natural sugar! bon appetit.

Eat the fruit instead. There is no reason to drink juice.

I am upset that my tax money is going to companies fighting each other over this and people in the government making descions and they are not well educated on the topic. UGH!

The funniest thing about this whole lawsuit to me is that POM itself was sued for making false claims about how good their juice is for people in the first place. I guess they don't want other companies benefiting from their false advertising! http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pom-wonderful-deceptively-adver…

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