Sweetener under investigation

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 7

Sweetener under investigation

PA Hamilton A new diet sweetener may breach food and drug regulations, according to the Health Department. ■ “Lite and Low”, which according to its advertising “puts less sugar in your life”, is made by Reckitt and Colman. The assistant director of the Health Department’s Public Health Division, Mr J. Fraser, said that the department was looking at the composition of the product,' at how it was advertised, and how it was labelled.

The matter was in the hands of the department’s solicitors, he said. Reckitt and Colman’s research and works controller, Mr P. Braithwaite, said that the product had been made in accordance with food and drug regulations. “We would be very surprised if any legal action was contemplated, because we have been in full discussion from the start with the Health Department,” Mr Braithwaite said.

Waikato Hospital has recommended on diQt sheets that “Lite and Low” should not be considered for use in a weight-reduction diet. The hospital’s diet sheets also say that the product is being looked at by the Health Department, according to the

hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr N. Harry.. The substance was high in sucrose, rather than glucose, but sucrose was a form of sugar. It therefore had to be considered as a sugar by people on a weight-reduction diet, or by diabetics, he said. “It is under investigation by the Health Department, and until the matter is clarified, we are saying that it is high in sucrose and has to be considered as a sugar.”