It boasts of being made under the sun, but some of the products used in the production of Golden Circle juice are far from fruity.
Heinz Australia, which owns Golden Circle, told Fairfax Media last week a clarifying agent derived from beef and alcohol-based flavours were used across its drinks range.
It was a revelation that caused outrage in sectors of the Hindu community, many of whom avoid meat and alcohol for religious reasons, and vegetarians and vegans, who do not consume animal products or by-products.
Now the iconic Queensland-born company has hit back at the claims, saying they were taken out of context.
Spokeswoman Carolyn Fox said a beef-derived gelatine was used to remove the “cloudiness” in its apple juice and “very small amounts of alcohol” were combined with concentrated flavours to keep them “stable, clean and crisp”.
However she said gelatine or alcohol were used only for production purposes and were not present in the final product.
Because the derivatives are not contained in the final product, they are not listed as ingredients.
“During the manufacturing process, the juice is filtered and the final product that reaches consumers does not contain gelatine,” Ms Fox said.
“Alcohol has the functional purpose of allowing the flavour to disperse more readily in liquids.
"It evaporates from the juice during the pasteurisation process when heat is applied and if any remains in juices afterwards, it is so small that it is below detectable levels."
Mohammed Yusef, president of the Islamic Council of Queensland, said Golden Circle products could be consumed by members of the Muslim faith because the beef gelatine used in its production was from Halal cattle.
“We did some investigation ourselves because we wanted to make sure it was fine to drink Golden Circle juice,” he said.
“We found the gelatine was from Halal cattle and there was no alcohol in the final product, which made it fine for consumption.”
On the flipside, Maureen Collier, spokeswoman for The Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland, said juice that used animal products in its production should disclose it on the labelling.
“Most vegetarians and vegans wouldn’t be aware of the processes used to create these products and if they knew animal by-products are used they would be horrified,” she said.
Heinz said consumers should always “carefully” read the ingredient list.
