EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Shaw's Supermarkets here has removed from its shelves some containers of its own-label shelf-stable and frozen apple juice products because they were found to contain a sweetener that invalidates the chain's purity claims.
Fructuline, a sweetener refined from Jerusalem artichokes and/or chicory and widely available in Europe, is not harmful to consumers, but the use of such an additive prohibits manufacturers from labeling their products 100% juice.
According to a statement from the Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md., "Products that fail to declare the additional ingredient or an accurate percentage of juice violate federal food law." Arthur Whitmore, a spokesman for FDA, said technically it can be a misbranding violation and an adulteration violation -- both violations breach provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Other companies also have discovered apple juice concentrate containing Fructuline in their inventory, including Coca-Cola Foods, Houston, maker of Minute Maid products; Nestle Beverage Co., San Francisco; Tropicana, Bradenton, Fla.; Cadbury Beverages, Stamford, Conn., marketer of Mott's, and Tree Top Inc., Selah, Wash. Coca-Cola Foods has filed a lawsuit against some of its suppliers. Spokeswomen from Tree Top and Nestle Beverage Co. said their respective companies are considering suits.
At Shaw's, shelf-stable apple juice in 10-ounce and 64-ounce
sizes and frozen apple juice from concentrate in 12-ounce cans contained the sweetener. One-gallon containers and 32-ounce sizes were found to be pure; those sizes are provided by a different supplier.
Bernard J. Rogan, spokesman for Shaw's, said a warning initially came from J. Sainsbury, Shaw's London-based parent company, cautioning officials at Shaw's to be aware of the apple juice concentrate coming from Europe.
Late last month, Shaw's pulled some products from its shelves, had them examined through a recently approved FDA test, and found that some of them did contain Fructuline.
Rogan said that while consumers were not in any danger, Shaw's felt it should remove the affected products because they were mislabeled. Rogan added, "We wanted to ensure the integrity of our own-label products. We went to the dentist early and got it taken care of."
Rogan would not disclose Shaw's apple juice concentrate supplier and was unaware of any potential legal action Shaw's might pursue.
Rogan said lab results take about a week, and Shaw's received confirmation Feb. 28. By the afternoon of Feb. 29, all store-label apple juice products had been removed from the shelves. Shaw's filled those slots with branded juices until new Shaw's-label products could be stocked March 5, Rogan said. Coca-Cola Foods' Minute Maid apple juice and apple blended products were recalled at the warehouse level when the company found Fructuline in some of its products. The company immediately stopped production and distribution of those products.
In its lawsuit filed in federal district court in Tampa, Fla., Coca-Cola Foods is seeking a refund and an unspecified amount in damages. The company is suing the following companies for a breach of contract: Empresa Comercial Internacional De Frutas S.A. of Liechtenstein, Apul Fruitconsult AG of Switzerland, Carronade International Trading Ltd. of Switzerland, Atalanta Corp. of New York, Pittra Inc. of New York and G.B. International of New Jersey.
An official at G.B. International declined to comment, and the other companies named in the case could not be reached.
According to the lawsuit, Coca-Cola Foods issued two purchase orders: one to Atalanta and Pittra for 417,213 gallons of apple juice concentrate and the other to G.B. International for 373,120 gallons. Carronade International supplies all three of those companies.
Carronade is the trading agent for apple juice concentrate supplied by Apul, which serves as an agent of Empresa, Apul's parent company. The terms of the purchase orders provided that all apple juice concentrate would conform to Coca-Cola Foods' specifications, according to the lawsuit.
The defendants allegedly breached one of the provisions of the contract that read: "The concentrate must not contain any additives such as sweeteners, acidulents, preservatives, antioxidants, colorants, bleaching agents, neutralizing alkalies, or buffering salts."
Tree Top issued a position statement after it found a small percentage of its supply affected. Jonelle Foutz, spokeswoman for Tree Top, said the company pulled the apple juice from its warehouse shelves, but left it at retail "because the FDA is not requiring that. It's not a health issue; it's a labeling issue."
She said the "vast majority of our concentrated purchase is produced locally here from our Washington-grown apples. We purchase a small amount of foreign concentrate and it's used to blend to a certain acidity level.
"The sweetener was found in only one of Tree Top's foreign suppliers' shipments. The concentrate Tree Top purchased from Germany has tested pure. Product labels include the country of origin, so consumers may be reassured," Foutz added. Tree Top "has stopped distribution on anything that is suspect and we're now shipping and distributing things that are pure," Foutz said. Nestle Beverage issued a statement shortly after learning its Juicy Juice 100% apple juice contained an added sweetener.
Melissa Ignacio, spokeswoman for Nestle, said the company has "been working with the FDA and has stopped production and shipment of all product to our customers that may have this suspect apple juice concentrate. We're also voluntarily withdrawing from customer warehouses." With the withdrawal complete, she said Nestle is still investigating the situation and they "are looking into when we'll be able to replace inventory, but we don't have those answers yet."
Catherine Van Evans, manager of communications and public affairs at Cadbury Beverages, said Cadbury found one set of its concentrate affected and was determining the amount of affected products still on retail shelves. She said it's possible all the products have already been sold.
Tropicana, too, discovered it had bought a small amount of concentrate containing Fructuline. Mark Gutsche, spokesman for Tropicana, said the product was immediately pulled from the warehouse. "We immediately, the same day, stopped using those and switched over to concentrates that tested clean."
He added that Tropicana "will be very aggressive in pursuing actions against the suppliers who defrauded us by selling this mislabeled apple juice concentrate."
