‘Fruit gums ARE one of five-a-day’

BOFFINS have worked out that Fruit Gums count towards your five-a-day but at a cost.

A customer asking maker Nestle to check how nutritious the treat is was told it would help him meet his Government-recommended quota for fruit and veg.

But it would take 195 of the sweets or 11 and a half packs to get the same amount of Vitamin C that is in a single piece of fruit.

The mountain of sweets would also contain the same amount of protein (27.6g) as a 4oz steak.

But it would also have 1,955 calories, just 45 short of the recommended daily maximum for women, and 238g of sugar.

That is nearly FIVE times the limit for females. The Fruit Gums would also contain 438.36g of carbohydrates almost double the 230g recommended daily limit.

Consumers’ pockets would also suffer, with 12 tubes of the sweet costing 7.08
compated to 40p for the average orange.

Nestle claims the real fruit juice in 195 Fruit Gums contains 70mg of vitamin C, the same as the average portion of fruit or veg.

A spokesman said: “We received a call from a customer enquiring about how many fruit gums a person would need to eat to get a portion of your ‘five-a-day’.

“We worked it out and told him a person would need to eat 11 and a half tubes of Fruit Gums, with each tube containing 17.

“As the Fruit Gums contain real fruit juice, it means they also contain vitamin C.

“Naturally different fruits contain different levels of vitamin C, but this figure of eleven and a half tubes relates to an average portion of fruit.”

Nestle claims its “sophisticated sweets are made with 25 per cent juice and come in delicious orange, blackcurrant, strawberry, lemon and lime flavours”.

Last October, Nestle was blasted by the Department of Health after it hijacked the Government’s Change4Life healthy eating campaign by encouraging families to buy more sugary treats.

Their Get Set, Go Free promotion offered tokens for free activities like swimming and horse riding on packets of Kit Kats, Smarties and Milky Bars.

The firm came under fire for using the Change4Life logo on a website linked to the sales campaign.