Amid the debate surrounding Cadbury's Bournvita, a scientist and liver specialist on Monday came forward to say that the company's claims on the "health drink" promoting muscle and bone growth, immunity enhancement, and brain development are misleading because there are no controlled studies to support them.
Dr Abby Phillips's comments come days after Instagram influencer Revant Himatsingka deleted a video calling out Cadbury for advertising Bournvita as a health drink despite its high sugar content.
In a Twitter thread, Dr Philips said that to refute Himatsingka's claims, Cadburys issued a statement that they have designed the product on a scientific basis, "which means there has to be published studies backing their claims". But the only published research that the liver doctor could find were those that supported Himatsingka's claims made in the now-deleted video.
Among the four research papers that Dr Philips found, one showed that caffeine content in Bournvita was higher than in other similar cocoa-based products. Another study showed that Bournvita product changes color due to inherent changes in pH due to its "sugary" content. A third called UNICEF-Cadbury partnership "sugarwashing."
"Basically, the claims of scientific methods or studies and the scientific evidence for everything that is written on the Bournvita product is not backed by good evidence and thus, Cadbury's claims are misleading on muscle and bone growth, immunity enhancement and brain development - there are no controlled studies to show the same," Dr Philips tweeted.
"Considering the high sugar content of 71 percent, per serve 20g has 14.2g sugar which is approx. Fifty-seven percent of recommended upper daily limit and this will only increase if more milk is added, or additional sugar is used over the day. Hence 'claim' that using the product as advised is safe is also a misleading one."
In his video from April 1, Himatsingka, who goes by Food Pharmer online, had criticised Cadbury for misrepresenting the product’s “nutritional value.” He remarked that the brand’s tagline of “tayyari jeet ki” should instead be changed to “tayyari diabetes ki.”
He called out Cadbury for advertising Bournvita as a health drink despite its high sugar content. "Should the government allow companies to blatantly lie on their package? Parents are getting their children addicted to sugar at a young age, and the children end up craving sugar throughout their lives," Himatsingka captioned the video, which had amassed more than 12 million views on Instagram by the time it was deleted.
But in a statement shared on April 14, Himatsingka said he decided to take the video down after receiving a legal notice from “one of India’s biggest law firms on 13th April, 2023.”
“I apologise to Cadbury for making the video. I did not plan or intend to infringe any trademark or defame any company, nor do I have the interest or resources to participate in any court cases,” he had written.
In its clarification, Cadbury Bournvita stated: “Bournvita contains nutrients namely Vitamin A, C, D, Iron, Zinc, Copper and Selenium which help build immunity. These have been part of our formulation for several years. We have always called out ‘Helps with the healthy functioning of the immune system’ on the back of our pack for several years (even before the Covid-19 pandemic)."
Cadbury Bournvita’s statement from April 9 added that each serve of Bournvita contains 7.5 grams of added sugar, which is less than the daily recommended sugar intake for children.
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