Governments want to own (that is, control) everything, and words are certainly no exception.
Fruit juice manufacturers in South Africa are being forced to take the word “juice” off their label because the state thinks they’re lying to their customers. You see, according to the state, juice isn’t just something nice and sweet to drink out of a cup, it has a very technically specific definition.
I know of two fantastic SA juice brands, Sir Juice and Nandi Beverages, that have been harassed by the state and forced to change their product labels at great personal expense. I’m sure there are more.
Very naughty.
Thankfully, in addition to the 715 State-Owned Enterprises we also have Orwellian state departments such as the Directorate of Food Safety Quality Assurance. These folk have decided that these millions of South African consumers walking around calling juice…well, juice, are all misguided fools. Don’t we know that REAL fresh juice,
- contains 100% juice/puree
- contains no additives
- has not been subjected to any preserving methods other than chilling
- is intended to be sold for consumption within 2 hours of extraction
In other words, for most practical purposes, real fresh juice doesn’t exist.
There’s also just plain old fruit juice which,
- may also contain permitted additives, e.g preservatives
- may contain permitted natural sweeteners (not exceeding 5%) or artificial sweeteners
- may contain added water
- must contain a minimum pure fruit juice content of 90% for orange, peach, pear, pineapple drinks, 80% for granadilla and guava drinks, and 70% for lemon and grapefruit drinks.
- may depict images of the fruit on their label
Got that citizen?
But the ‘juice’ us mere mortals drink does not ascend to these glorious heights and must therefore be called something else lest we believe that we too can soar with eagles and drink of natures purity.
No, anything that you call juice that doesn’t fit the arbitrary specifications set out above is called fruit nectar, or fruit squash, or fruit drink, or fruit flavoured drink.
So you see, it’s really simple – all you have to do as the informed and empowered consumer is memorise a full table of technical chemical definitions and no unscrupulous juice maker will ever be able to pull the wool over your eyes.
Our beloved directorate goes on to inform us that,
South African consumers have quite a large array of products to choose from when purchasing fruit juice and fruit drink products. But how many consumers are actually aware of what the difference between a fruit juice, fruit nectar, fruit drink or fruit flavoured drink is?
The better question of course is how many South Africans give a flying fig about the difference? Those that want freshly squeezed hippy juice can get it, and those that want the more affordable processed version can get it too.
And why all this silly nannying? Obviously it’s…
To enable you to make a more informed choice the next time you purchase a fruit juice or fruit drink product, we would like to put the subject of fruit juices and fruit drinks into perspective.
But it’s not is it? No, it’s to keep nannying and keep meddling bureaucrats in a job and keep harassing the people who are actually adding value to society and who are REALLY helping consumers.
Meanwhile, back in real life, manufacturers and businesses are being harangued by busy body state directorates poking around their affairs and forcing them to replace key business assets like company names and branding at considerable tangible and intangible expense and risk.
Have these companies committed fraud against their customers? Have they tricked them into drinking something they didn’t intend on buying? Of course not. Their customers went out to buy juice, and juice is what they were sold. There’s no definition of the word needed. That’s the beauty of the market: free suppliers and free buyers come together and agree to trade. And in agreeing to do so the customer agrees that they value the product, and accept all forms of packaging, branding, and words on it.
Unfortunately it’s this kind of regulatory minutiae that goes wholly unnoticed and unreported because it’s just to hard to see and too pervasive to combat. The state is running amok everywhere. So endemic is this interference in our lives that we’ve actually lost the will to fight it. We simply incur the cost and regard the parasite as a fact of life. The problem is that honest businesses like Sir Juice (soon forced to become Sir Fruit) and Nandi Beverages (who’s been forced to take the word “juice” off its bottle labels) who add real value to society are turned in the eyes of the state into noncompliant foes, to be threatened or shut down.
And what do these businesses do? They comply. Why? Because they’re emasculated minions of the state? No, it’s because they’re not big enough to spend the time and resources to fight it, and their livelihoods depend on serving their customers needs by getting every obstacle out the way as quickly as possible in order to do that. But not all companies survive this state onslaught. Hit from all sides by every regulation under the sun, many marginal producers opt out, liquidate their assets, choosing to do something else.
And society becomes unambiguously poorer.
UPDATE 31/05/2013: Speaking of completely unnecessary meddling, Red Rob Davies wants to foist even more forced red tape onto consumer goods suppliers.
