Fruit Shoot
Robinsons Fruit Shoot is a trade mark applied to several drinks designed to appeal to children. Produced by well-known drinks company Britvic and sold in the United Kingdom. The brand has been presented as a healthier alternative to fizzy drinks. Fruit Shoots are offered as one of the drink options for McDonalds Happy Meals and KFC 'Kids Meals'; this has been cited in representations to the UK Parliament on Britvic's healthier eating initiatives. Fruit Shoots were described by the company as a "high juice, no added sugar drink"[1] (the juice content is only 10%)[2]
Fruit Shoots are found stocked alongside Ribena (from GSK), Tropicana Kids (owned by PepsiCo), Innocent (now controlled by Coca-Cola) and other such drinks which are marketed as fruit juice based.
Robinsons Fruit Shoot H2O is a spring water drink 'With a Splash of Natural Fruity Orange Flavour'. It is made from 99.7% spring water. 'Natural Orange Flavour' is third in the ingredients list (after citric acid), so it contains a maximum of 1 in 1,000th of 'Natural Orange Flavour' (in 2010). Robinsons have not replied to a query asking if their 'Fruity Orange Flavour' contains any real orange.
Robinsons Fruit Shoot contains only natural flavours and colours and is available in five flavours; Summer Fruits (in low Sugar only) Apple (in low Sugar) Tropical (in low Sugar only), Orange and Blackcurrant & Apple. (in regular and low sugar). It is noted that previously on the blue bottle, a small banner on the bottom read "No Added Sugar". There are also Fruit Shoot "My 5" versions available which contain one of a child's 5 a day of fruit.
The regular Fruit Shoot range with the green top is a full sugar product and does not contain aspartame (the No Added Sugar version with the gray top does).
Although the gray top range has no added sugar, it contains Potassium Sorbate (Preservative) and Sodium Citrate, plus natural colourings and malic acid. It is sold in a sports-style bottle, and since its launch in 2000 has become the best-selling children's ready-to-drink still beverage in the UK,[3] beating better-established brands such as Ribena. In 2012, Britvic recalled packs featuring the 'spill proof Magicap' design due to concerns over packaging safety.[4]
In early 2009 Fruit Shoot started to promote their brand online, due to the success of the Robinsons parent brand's site in 2008.
in 2009 Fruit Shoot had a brand new look for the brand, and changes were made. Strawberry was replaced with summer fruits; orange and peach became orange. Apple, summer fruits and tropical are only available with low sugar but blackcurrant and apple and orange are in regular (8 or 4 pack only) or low sugar.
Brand promotion
Between 2007 and 2009[5] Robinsons marketed Fruit Shoot through an association with The Scout Association (UK).
Health
It is not sugar free, contains mainly spring water, only 10% fruit juice and each full sugar 200ml bottle contains 23g of sugar – the equivalent of almost five teaspoonfuls. However the vast majority of Fruit Shoots sold are now of the Low Sugar variety.
Fruit Shoot is not recommended for people with PKU (Phenylketonuria) where amino acids cannot be properly broken down, because the aspartame and sweeteners are a source of phenylalanine.