Health benefits of tea "exaggerated"
Tea is said to have beneficial antioxidant properties
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Wednesday, 26, Sep 2007 04:26
Health benefits of tea were "exaggerated" in adverts encouraging people to consume the drink on a daily basis, the advertising regulator has ruled.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated posters from the UK Tea Council (UKTC) after members of the public complained about their content.
In the adverts one poster stated: "Five portions of fruit & veg plus four cups of tea. It all adds up to a healthy diet", while another said: "Recently dark chocolate and red wine have been in the news. So has tea, because it's a good source of antioxidants. Four cups a day can contribute to a diet rich in antioxidants which could help to protect your body against the damaging effects of free radicals."
People said they were misleading and led them to believe that the adverts were part of a government campaign.
In response, UKTC told ASA it had no intention to imply the adverts were issued by the government and that the campaign was designed to communicate the health benefits of tea as part of a wider healthy lifestyle.
As part of the investigation ASA consulted an expert on food, who said the evidence relating to health benefits related to tea consumption were "promising but inconclusive".
The results led ASA to conclude it "had not seen evidence to firmly substantiate any health benefit in drinking four cups of tea per day".
In its ruling today the watchdog said: "We told UKTC not to imply in future campaigns that there was an established health benefit, in terms of antioxidant potential, to be had from drinking four cups of tea per day.
"In addition, we told them to take care in future marketing to avoid the implication that their message was given on behalf of the government or similar authority."
The UKTC said that it is "frustrated" with the ruling and intends to appeal against it.
"When they told me that we couldn't run the ads, I was completely mystified," said William Gorman from the UKTC.
"We provided the ASA with almost 100 independent scientific research papers and yet they still turned us down despite acknowledging that the antioxidants in tea are absorbed into the body."