Who’s hoodwinked by a healthy halo?
But nowadays that twisted rationale seems a little out of date. Broad beans may still taste bad to me, but we can have our healthy foods in other forms – and enjoy them too. At FoodNavigator we have noticed a trend amongst flavour firms for new collections they say are inspired by the trend for healthier eating, like green tea, goji, and pomegranate, to name a few. But unlike the foods they mimic or stem from, the flavours don’t have any health benefits themselves. Instead, they form part of a food’s healthy halo. A shimmering aura of a goodness and nutrition. “Eat me, and be well,” they seem to say. That’s all very well if the food beneath the halo is healthy too. A product with active levels of green tea catechins, for example, may need a helping hand from a flavour to make it taste of tea. But what about green-tea flavoured cake, or cranberry candy? The halo could eclipse the high fat or sugar content. Right now, nutrient profiling is a hot topic in the EU, as law-makers put their h
