• Question: Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

    Asked by 9eltu to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Sound downright wrong, doesn’t it! Probably because for consumer products, unfortunately, it’s all about money. Probably many lemons are not fit to eat, so they are used for things like soaps (which probably improves the soap’s ability to clean off grime, etc.) But for lemonade that is sold to humans for consumption, the producers can only use the best lemons, so that the product tastes good and doesn’t make people sick! But real lemons are expensive… and the lemonade producers can make more money if they use artificial sugars from corn, like high fructose corn syrup, for example. Next time you are at the store, try to find a drink or food that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup on the ingredient list.. it is very hard! HFCS is very bad for you too… I try not to consume it whenever possible! Unlike sugar, it doesn’t let your body know that your body has had enough, making your brain want even more sugar.

    • Photo: Gemma Staite

      Gemma Staite answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I’d guess that cost is a big factor in this too. Also, artificial flavours can be used to get the best taste, making consumers want more of the product. Whilst using lemons in washing up liquid uses its natural and acidic properties for breaking down grime and helping fight bacteria, meaning less need for chemicals.

    • Photo: SarahJayne Boulton

      SarahJayne Boulton answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Another reason is reproducability.

      Companies spend millions of pound ensuring that the taste, texture and smell of their eatable products is exactly the same, unit to unit, every time. As natural products, like real lemons, can vary in flavour depending on when they were picked, how ripe the are or even what the weather has been doing it’s much easier in a mass production environment to ensure a consistent flavour using batch made, industry tested and traceable artifical flavours and additives.

      For things like washing up liquid we humans are less discerning, so it doesn’t matter so much if reproducibility isn’t as consistent. Also, in the marketing world there is a trend towards people seeking out percieved natural products as the best products (regardless of whether they actually are or not) so some times slogans like ‘Made with Real Lemons!!’ are part of a value adding marketing strategy.

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