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Smoothie Riddle |
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I was drinking a store bought Strawberry Banana smoothie-in-a-bottle, where
it says 'all-natural' 'since 1847' and 'pure goodness,' all the standard we are better than anything marketing stuff. While looking at the
ingredients I noticed something strange. |
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| # | My Response | Answer |
| 1 | True! But does not relate to the question of redundancy. |
Because FDA requires ingredients to be listed in order of decreasing amount. |
| 2 | Not really. Perhaps for more complex things like croutons or chocolate chips, but it would be easy to know the amount of Strawberry and banana in the puree even if it did arrive mixed. | Well, I would guess that they get the "Strawberry Banana Puree" in bulk and that would clearly need an
ingredients label as well...and because the bulk "Strawberry Banana Puree" had an ingredient label, it had to be transfered on the smoothie
bottle...i think... |
| 3 | No. Listing it as "Strawberry Puree, Banana Puree, Apple Juice, and Natural
Flavour," would be sufficient. |
To eliminate confusion for those with an allergy to either Strawberries or Bananas. |
| 4 | Not really. While this process may be true, for fermented products like beer, the ingredients are still listed seperately. | Um, sometimes when cooking or baking, they seperate what they prepare before mixing them together. I'm
sure they leave the purees to chill or ferment for different timed amounts so that they have even potency, because Banana is not as strong of a
flavor as Strawberries, and would need to sit longer to have the sweetness in the Bananas come out. |
| 5 | No. As for legal reasons, no again. :) | My only thought for the puree is that they technically would blend giant vats of the fruit seperately
and mix them later to create the different flavours, but that doesn't explain why it isn't written as you described without redundancy other than
perhaps legal reasons. |
| 6 | No. Although this is a popular answer, it does not carry much logical weight. | I think I know the answer to your question. The ingredients they write on the bottle are the ingredients
that they mix together in their factory. They buy the apple juice, they buy the natural flavour, and they buy Strawberry Banana Puree (which is
composed of 2 ingredients). So for the company the smoothie is made of just 3 ingredients, 3 things to buy, and 3 things to mix together. One of
those ingredients happens to be composed of 2 'sub-ingredients' and they include those in parenthesis. |
| 7 | Yes, there is more strawberry than banana since in the parenthesis stawberry is
listed first. This does not however answer why the ingredients are combined however. |
Because there is more strawberry puree than banana. |
| 8 | No, to the first answer. Having secret ingredients is a little too 'conspiracist' for me. And the second answer, we've determined is not convincingly conclusive. | There are two possible answers. One is that they added the Strawberry Banana puree but didn't make it
themselves, and therefore have to list the ingredients in the puree just incase there are other things including, for example, sugar, water, etc.
possible answer number two is that the strawberry banana puree mixture is made and used as one ingredient when being added to the product. |
| 9 | Ahh, a strawnana fruit that might confuse people? Two points for creativity, none however for accuracy. :( This little puzzle has produced a slew of budding lawyers. :) | Umm.. maybe to ensure that everyone knows that the strawberries and the Banana's were pureed seprately..
and so that people dont think that strawberry-banana is not one fruit? also.... maybe because strewberry banana puree is the name of a product that
already exists and they didnt want people to think that that is what was in it?? Also, its probably because of laws.. they have to state that
Strawberry's and banana's are seprate... |
| 10 | And the winner is... | I don't really know the answer, but seeing as this is all-natural pure goodness that goes back to 1847,
I'm thinking it has something to do with the Dawn-Breakers... |
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| "So, I was talking with Rhetta (a collegue and
classmate of mine). She said, the only reason that makes sense is that ingredients are listed in order. That's why there are like 8 types of
sugar listed through out the ingredient list of your granola bar, because if "sugar" was listed as one ingredient... it would be first on the
list... but since there are so many types of sugar, each component is less than the combined and gets listed later in the list. therefore, by
calling it strawberry banana puree, it gets listed first. that semi solves the problem." - Tassnim M. Interstingly, a week after this answer was privately given to me, a Pardis wrote me: "The combined volume of the strawberry and banana purees is greater than the volume of the apple juice, allowing the "Strawberry Banana Puree" to be listed first. If the purees were listed individually, they would be listed after the apple juice. This is a marketing gimmick. It took you an hour?" (thanks for the insult :) My Aunt, who is a dietician also gave this as her answer--even using Tazz's sugar example. There is no way to
'prove' this unless the company will divulge the quantity of the 4 ingredients, which I imagine is somewhat proprietary. If you disagree with this
accepted answer please e-mail me a more plausible explanation for consideration. Be warned however, you are very likely to just embarass yourself.
:) When faced with an incontrovertible truth you are often best served just accepting it instead of launching endless cavils and detractions. I
would write more on the subject but I'm too busy enjoying my Apple/Strawberry/Banana Smoothie! -martin |
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 Me, after a full meal, drinking a 1,900 calorie Strawberry Hulk from Smoothie King at the DC Conference! |
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