TC09095 - [2024] UKFTT 00181 (TC)

Ingredients and Process [111] – [115]

“111.

Both Organix Bars have two main ingredients, wholegrain oats and raisins. In the Banana bar, the oats are 46% and the raisins 27%; in the Carrot Cake bar the oats are 46.5% and the raisins 32.2%. The raisins contain sunflower oil, and further sunflower oil is added, at 12% and 12.1% respectively. The next main ingredient by weight is fruit juice: the Banana bar has 10% apple juice concentrate and the Carrot Cake bar has 7% carrot juice concentrate and 2% apple juice concentrate.

112.

Those four ingredients form what Mr Howard described as the base “dough mixture” to which flavours are added. In the Banana bar this is dried banana (5%), and in the Carrot Cake bar it is cinnamon powder (0.4%) plus a touch of orange oil (less than 0.1%).

113.

The principal reason for adding the fruit juices is to bind the other ingredients together. Concentrate is used because single strength fruit juice contains too much water and would be insufficiently sticky. Concentrate has, as Mr Howard said, a ‘syrup like’ quality. Sunflower oil is added to offset the stickiness of the fruit juice. In evidence-in-chief Mr Howard explained that the concentrate ‘is needed in the bars as a source of sugar to make the bars work’; when asked by Mr Simpson to expand, he added that what is required is ‘a relatively high sugar level – either fat based or sugar based – to hold the bars together’.

114.

Each Banana bar contains 4.6g of fat and 18g of carbohydrate, including 8.1g of sugar; each Carrot Cake bar contains 4.7g of fat and 17g of carbohydrate, including 7.9g of sugar. On a percentage basis, the Banana bar is 27% sugar and the Carrot Cake bar 26% sugar. This is around half the sugar content of most of the confectionery provided by way of comparison: KitKats are 51% sugar; Maltesers are 51.7% sugar and a Mars bar is 59.9% sugar. The only comparator which is close to the Organix Bars is Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate, which is 28.5% sugar.

115.

The above ingredients are mixed together, “sheeted out”, and cut into oblong bars, which are then baked, cooled and packed.”