How Healthy Are Your Health Drinks? Controversy Around Horlicks, Bournvita, Boost Raises Questions

Children have a love-hate relationship with milk. Our childhood was spent getting convinced by parents to drink milk, with many of m resorting to ding “health drinks” like Horlicks, Bournvita, Boost and Milo to plain milk to make it taste better. We have grown up watching vertisements of se drinks claiming y are healthy, nutritious and delicious. Some drinks claim that y can increase height and build muscles, while ors say that y can sharpen brain.

se claims, backed by celebrities in fancy s, did not just entice children into believing that ding se powders is only way to make milk taste good, y also convinced parents that y are feeding ir kids something healthy. However, after a directive by Ministry of Commerce and Industry to e-commerce companies, instructing m to reclassify drinks and beverages from category of 'health drinks' on ir platforms, we are all left questioning aunticity of those claims.

From Health Drink to Functional Nutrition Drink in a week

HUL, parent company of brands such as Horlicks and Boost has announced repositioning of its 'Health Food Drinks' category to 'Functional Nutrition Drinks' (FND). This comes after recent actions taken by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which directs e-commerce platforms to remove beverages from 'health drinks' category due to undefined regulatory standards.

Ritesh Tiwari, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hindustan Unilever, said, "We have changed labels of category to FND, which is a much better way to call it." He stressed on potential of growth within FND segment, including vancements within its premium FND range, catering to diabetes management and women's health. Just last week, Mondelez-owned Bournvita also stopped calling itself a health drink, after new government directive. 

According to National Health Service, ults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day. In children aged 7-10 should, consumption of sugar should not be more than 24 g per day, whereas children aged 4-6 should have no more than 19 grams of sugars per day. Bournvita previously contained 37.4 grams of ded sugar per 100 grams of powder. However, new packaging in December 2023 reveals that it has a reduced sugar content of 32.2 grams per 100 grams.

What does Functional Nutrition Drink mean?

shift from health drink category to FND has happened because of   absence of a clear definition of 'health drinks' under Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. Now, it is important to know what FND means. According to ScienceDirect, “A functional beverage can be defined as “any non-alcoholic drink that provides ditional health benefits due to inclusion of any bioactive component from a plant, animal, marine or microorganism source.” With dition of Horlicks and Boost in this category, y can create niche products for specific issues.

What are ingredients in Horlicks and Bournvita?

ingredients in 500gms of Bournvita are - ‎cereal extract 56%* (barley, wheat), sugar, cocoa solids, colour (150c), minerals, wheat gluten, liquid glucose, maltodextrin, emulsifiers (322, 471), milk solids, vitamins, raising agent (500(11), iodised salt, flavours (natural, nature identical and artificial (vanilla) flavouring substances). Allergen information: contains milk, wheat, barley, sulphites, soy.

Horlicks lists its key ingredients in a 500 gm packet as - Malted Barley (Extracted Solids) 39%, Wheat Flour (27%), Milk Solids (14%), Minerals, Wheat Gluten (2%),Vitamins, Protein Isolate. With HUL rebranding Horlicks as an FND drink a week after government directive, this can be seen as a well thought-out step to branch out.

How did issue of misleing claims come to light?

Social media influencer and a certified nutritionist Revant Himatsingka, known as Food Pharmer online, h posted a now deleted reel, where he talked about misleing packaging and claims of Bournvita. While he was served a legal notice by parent company Mondelez, it is noteworthy that his reel brought about significant changes.

For example, Bournvita changed its tagline from “tann ki shakti, mann ki shakti” to “tayyari jeet ki” to finally not having a slogan on its packets. In a recent reel, Himatsingka talked about change in Bournvita’s ingredients. He posted, “1 video resulted in a 15% reduction in sugar. Imagine if all Indians started reing food labels. Companies wouldn’t dare falsely market mselves.”

Questiuons over celebrity-backed campaigns

latest campaign, amid all controversies surrounding Bournvita, focusses on Vitamin D in beverage. packaging claims that it contains 50% of daily Vitamin D requirement. And as has been trend with se drinks, rar than Bollywood celebrities, athletes are seen featuring in campaign.

Star players like sprinter Hima Das, boxer Ashish Kumar and squash player Anahat Singh were a part of Tayyari Jeet Ki campaign. It instantly drew criticism from netizens, who called it “Tayyari Diabetes Ki”. Previous brand ambassors of Bournvita include Ajay Jeja in 90s, Saina Nehwal and skipper of Indian cricket team Rohit Sharma.

Boost has also h influential athletes endorse beverage, including biggest of cricket stars like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, along with youngsters like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. All of m parrot “Boost is secret of my energy” tagline, making thousands of people believe that it in fact, is a healthy drink.

Horlicks, on or hand, has focussed on roping in celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Tapsee Pannu and Taare Zameen Par star Darsheel Safari back in late 2000s, at peak of his popularity. y h also signed Amitabh Bachchan, who decided to not promote brand last minute because of its high sugar content, which was brought to his notice by fans, concerned citizens and several NGOs.

What are or products facing flak for misinformation?

In meanwhile, Nestlé faces similar allegations of excessive sugar content in Cerelac baby food. company has found itself embroiled in controversy over allegations of high sugar levels in its Cerelac baby food products sold in India and or developing nations. An investigation conducted by Public Eye and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) revealed stark disparities in sugar content across different markets.

Revant Himatsingka also called out instant beverage mix Tang, for having more than 93% sugar. He posted on X, saying, “Tang has ~93% sugar! Tang is nothing but flavoured sugar powder. If y limited ir marketing to taste, re would be no issue. problem is y vertise ir product as a drink with various vitamins.” It is noteworthy that Tang also contains E171 (Titanium Dioxide), an ingredient banned by EU and several Middle-Eastern countries.