Trust is an important element of any relationship. Whether looking at how we interact with one another, or with those companies whose food products we ingest, trust proves indispensable. In today’s culture of truth-challenged government officials and business executives, and the public’s backlash against those giving the appearance of offering less than the whole truth, one would think businesses providing food products might decide to take an especially high road in marketing their products, especially those products they slap their name across.
Apparently not. Let’s take a look at an issue unfortunately applicable to a great number of fruit leather snack providers. Fruit leather? Not sure what that is? Think “Fruit Roll-Ups.” I’m referring here to the lesser refined versions, which are not exclusively targeted at children. Some even use organic ingredients.
Before going further, I’ll note my involvement in developing an alternative line of fruit leather snacks under the TeatherTM brand. Regardless of your possible concerns about my ability to take a purely unbiased look at this subject, I think you’ll agree what I’m about to say is demonstrably true.
So what’s the issue with these fruit leather providers? The issue is an apparent lack of integrity in describing the flavor of their products. Whether the flavor is strawberry, berry, raspberry, cherry, or insert any number of fruit names, they nearly always taste like apple. To make a bad situation even worse, these same providers include photos or drawings of the touted fruit on the label. So when one looks at the label and reads its text, the logical conclusion is that you’re getting a product that actually tastes like the “advertised” flavor. One bite reveals the ugly truth – sometimes no more than a hint of the “advertised” flavor and one predominated by the flavor of apples. Why does it have to be this way? Do they think we can’t taste the difference?
Let’s look at the list of ingredients. The order of the ingredients is not haphazardly sequenced. FDA labeling requirements mandate ingredients be listed in the order of their amount. You’ll notice the first couple of ingredients in most cases are apple puree and/or apple juice concentrate. As the reference to “concentrate” implies, these are apple products from which much of their water has been removed, so much so they are nothing much more fruit sugar. The skin and much of the flesh has been removed as well. Hold a fruit leather piece up to a light. In most cases you can nearly see through it. These products are composed of highly processed ingredients, so much so that there’s simply not a lot of the original fruit left, particularly the fruit making up the “advertised” flavor. In the end, the result is nearly always the same: a product that doesn’t take like the flavor it claims to offer.
Back to the whole trust thing. How can we trust a company claiming to give us one thing when we actually get quite another? I wonder what kind of response these companies might offer to justify their position. If they respond “it’s a cost issue”, ask whether they’re referring to the cost of the ingredients or the cost of revealing the truth. Without truth, trust is a hard thing to come by.
I look forward to hearing your feedback about the fruit leather brands you now consume and your thoughts on the issue of trust raised in this post.
All the best.