Fruit Shoot
Robinson's Fruit Shoot is a juice drink which is marketed to adults for their children and produced by Britvic drinks and sold in the United Kingdom. It has been positioned as a somewhat 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 the firm's representation to Parliament on its healthier eating initiatives, where it is described as a "high juice, no added sugar drink"[1] (the juice content is only 11%)[2]
Robinson 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. [citation needed]
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", however this changed to "Low Sugar", due to the small amounts of sugar present in fruit juice and to correct any confusion about the product containing no 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 low sugar version with the blue top does). Although the blue top range has no added sugar, it contains the artificial sweeteners Aspartame and Acesulfame K, as well as other additives including acidity regulator Trisodium Citrate, Dimethyl Di carbonate, 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 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.
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 annot be properly broken down, because the aspartame and sweeteners are a source of phenylalanine.