Schoolgirls down food giant

It has been a staple of picnics and playgrounds for generations of children, but amateur sleuthing by a pair of schoolgirls has shown that Ribena sold in Australia and New Zealand is not all that it claims to be.
The makers of the cordial, GlaxoSmithKline, were fined nearly £80,000 today after pleading guilty at a court in New Zealand to making misleading claims about the amount of Vitamin C the drink contains.

The admission came after dogged detective work by Auckland schoolgirls Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, who tested Ribena as part of a school science project.

The results of their laboratory work forced a chastened GlaxoSmithKline to admit that its cartoned, ready-to-drink Ribena had no detectable vitamin C, despite claims it contained seven milligrams per 100 millilitres.

The company also admitted it may have misled New Zealand customers by claiming that the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup contained four times the vitamin C of oranges.

The schoolgirls carried out the tests in 2004 when they were both aged 14, but their findings were initially ignored by the manufacturers.

They eventually came to the attention of the NZ Commerce Commission, a business watchdog, which took GlaxoSmithKline to court.

In addition to the fine, the global giant was also ordered to run ads explaining the real contents of the drink.