ASA rules that ‘antioxidant’ constitutes health claim

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has told PepsiCo to stop using the term ‘antioxidant’ in all marketing material for its Naked Juice range.

The ASA ruled that use of the term constituted an unauthorized health claim under the provision of the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation on EU.

PepsiCo had argued that the terms ‘antioxidant’ and ‘antioxidant family’ were non-specific, general health claims and therefore permissible to use. But the ASA, which has been flexing its muscles over new EU health claims laws, ruled that since ‘antioxidant’ referred to a function of a substance on that body it amounted to specific health claim.