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Showerthought: I used to think 'natural flavors' was the good stuff | Food Label Confusion - Opinions Matter

Showerthought: I used to think 'natural flavors' was the good stuff

I was at the grocery store in Springfield looking at two different apple juice cartons, one said '100% juice' and the other said 'made with natural flavors'. I bought the 'natural flavors' one thinking it was better, but when I got home I read the tiny print and saw it was only 10% juice. The rest was water and sugar. I felt totally tricked. Has anyone else had a label make them feel dumb like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryanj607mo ago

Honestly, I see it the other way... "natural flavors" tells me exactly what's in there, a flavor made from real stuff. The "100% juice" label is the tricky one, because that can just mean concentrated juice from who knows where, watered back down and still called 100%. At least the "natural flavors" carton was upfront about only having 10% juice right on the front.

matthewsullivan7mo ago

Yeah, that's a really good point from @ryanj60 about the "100% juice" label being the real trick. I read something a while back about how "from concentrate" basically means they boiled all the water out to ship it, then added water back later, and they can still call it 100% juice. So you're right, the carton with 10% juice is at least being clear on the front. The whole "natural flavors" thing is its own mess though, since that can mean almost anything from a real fruit or spice.

olivia_hernandez5mo ago

My youngest had a phase where she would ONLY drink the 10% juice box with the orange dinosaur on it because it said "10% real juice" and she thought that meant it had TEN PERCENT more than the others. Took me a while to explain that was actually LESS than the 100% ones. She still picked the dino box because the dinosaur was "friendlier." So I guess that's marketing working exactly how they want it to, just on a different level. Kids are wild.