The Schoolgirls Who Cost Ribena
£80k for Its Vitamin Fib

The maker of the popular children's drink Ribena was fined today after admitting in court it had misled generations of parents about the drink's vitamin C content.

GlaxoSmithKline was forced to plead guilty to the fact that its ready-to-drink Ribena - which it claimed had 7 mg of vitamin C per 100ml and was aimed at school lunchboxes - in fact had no detectable vitamin C.

The company was fined £80,000 and ordered to run corrective advertisements, in addition to a message on its website.

Although the admission came in a New Zealand court, it is likely to have an impact on Ribena's global sales. In Auckland District Court, GlaxoSmithKline admitted 15 charges covering offences between 2002 and 2006.

The deception came to light during a "fun" school science experiment in 2004.

Two 14-year-old Auckland schoolgirls Jenny Suo and Anna Devathasan tested various fruit drinks for vitamin C content as part of a science competition. They were shocked to find next to no vitamin C in Ribena.
The Daily Mail, 27th March 2007