US: Cadbury defends 7UP "100% natural" claims

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 15 May 2006

Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages has dismissed claims that it has lied in a recent campaign promoting its 7UP brand as "100% Natural".

The US soft drinks giant insisted that it was "entirely confident" about the marketing effort, launched last month, which relaunched 7UP as being completely made from natural ingredients for the first time.

Cadbury was hitting back at claims from the Center for Science in the Public Interest that it had "deceived" consumers with the 7UP campaign.

The US health advocacy group said "at least one" artificial ingredient remained in 7UP - high fructose corn syrup. Its presence, the CSPI said, had led it to launch legal action against Cadbury to force the company to drop the 100% claim.

However, a Cadbury spokesman told just-drinks late on Friday (12 May) that the company had removed all artificial ingredients from 7UP and replaced them with "five 100% natural ingredients".

He added: "High fructose corn syrup is a natural ingredient. It is made from corn, a natural grain product, and many of the processes used to manufacture HFCS are used in the production of other all-natural foods and ingredients.

"We are entirely confident in the accuracy of our claims that 7UP is 100% natural and have no plans to alter our marketing and advertising strategy."

Sectors: Soft drinks

Companies: Cadbury Schweppes