LOCAL: Liqui Fruit’s apple-flavoured juice products may have levels of a toxic substance
Did you buy Liqui Fruit juice recently?
Everyone looks to a nice chilled juice with their lunch or supper during the summer months, and this is usually not a concern when you purchase a product that has automatically received a great rating in your books.
Liqui Fruit is definitely considered one of those products. Their name has earned a top rank in the market and many people's carts or baskets always include one or two of the boxed juices regardless of the price hike.
So to hear that the key supplier of the apple juice concentrate that is part of the ingredients in the Liqui Fruit apple drink, may have supplied unsafe produce, is causing some anxiety to some extent.
"Pioneer Foods announced a recall of several of LiquiFruit’s apple-flavoured juice products. The food giant said an investigation confirmed the presence of elevated levels of a natural toxic substance called patulin in the products. Palutin is a mould toxin found in rotting apples. The recall is based on the presence of patulin exceeding 50 parts per billion (microgram/kg), which is the regulatory threshold." (MSN)
Somehow that makes us feel a bit uneasy, considering this to some extent reveals that the byproducts are not quality checked before adding to the mix. We aren't experts when it comes to juice making, but when it comes to creating trust with a brand such as Liqui Fruit, we are hooked as consumers.
So to hear that they are recalling their products due to a toxic substance, just the word toxic gets our hair standing up, makes us feel vulnerable to who we can and cannot trust when it comes to reputable brands.
The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) emphasises that every consumer has a right to receive goods that are safe and of good quality. If the investigation reveals that Elgin Fruit Juice (PTY) LTD contravened the provisions of the CPA, the Commission will refer the matter to the National Consumer Tribunal where we will be praying for an administrative fine of 10% of their total annual turnover or R1 000 000, whichever is the greater.
Check out more from East Coast Radio
It is somewhat positive to hear that the Consumer Protection Act always give necessary attention to these kinds of revelations. The main part being that there is some sort of accountability for this mistake.
We understand that this is most likely caused by human error but then something needs to be put in place to ensure that this doesn't occur in the future. Taking care of the quality assurance before going to shelves should be given highest priority.
Image Courtesy of Facebook