Strawberry Acai Jello is actually made with No Acai Berry in the Jell-O

Strawberry Acai Jell-O from Kraft Foods

We are pretty cynical people, but this one even amazed us. Take a quick guess how much Acai is in the new Strawberry Acai Jello? Need a clue, the package says it is “Jello with Antioxidants” – so it must be packed with Acai Berries and Strawberries- right?

The answer is….

0 grams of Acai

0 grams of Strawberry

That’s right – this Jello with Antioxidants has absolutely no Acai or Strawberries. Here is the ingredient list -

Water, Gelatin, Contains Less than 0.5% of AD/PIC Acid and Citric Acid (for Tartness), Sodium Citrate (Controls Acidity), Aspartame and Acesulfame Potassium (Sweeteners), Salt, Red 40, Natural Flavor, Malic Acid, Vitamin E Acetate, Beta Carotene.

In a previous post we talked about fairy dusting – putting a trace amount of a popular ingredient in your product for marketing purposes – but this is even worse – No Acai Berry At All! The Antioxidants they mention on the package come from the Vitamin E they have added – not the Acai berry.

I guess Kraft would argue that the “Natural Flavor” has the flavor of Acai and Strawberry, but this seems like a pretty weak argument to us. The fact is, if a product is called Strawberry-Acai Jello, it should have Strawberry and Acai listed on the label.

I guess we need to come up with a new term for the practice of putting Acai on your package and then not including it in the product…. wait, I got it – lying!