Skip to main content

Bournvita controversy snowballs after MNC threatens legal action against small fry

By Rajiv Shah 
Amidst raging controversy over the top children's product Bournvita's allegedly misleading information on claims of "improved brain activity, improved muscles, improved immune system and improved bone health", a spokesperson of the Cadbury's one of the most well-known brands has said, over the last seven decades it "has earned the trust of consumers in India."
Insisting that by being a scientifically formulated product that "adheres to the highest quality standards and complies with all the laws of the land", Bournvita, "concerned by a recent unscientific video on social media that went abnormally viral", the spokesperson said, the video distorts facts and makes "false and negative inferences" about its "safety and efficacy".
Stating that the video (now withdrawn) presenter's comments "are not based on science and were designed to drive anxiety and fear among our loyal consumers by misrepresenting the facts and omitting factually correct information to sensationalize his view", the spokesperson admitted, it has "created panic and anxiety and questions the trust that consumers have bestowed on brands like Bournvita."
The spokesperson insisted, "The formulation has been scientifically crafted by a team of nutritionists and food scientists to offer the best of taste and health. All our claims are verified and transparent and all ingredients have regulatory approvals. All the necessary nutritional information is mentioned on the pack for consumers to make informed choices."
The spokesperson further said:
"Bournvita is best consumed with a glass of 200 ml hot or cold milk as highlighted on the pack. Every serve of 20 gm of Bournvita has 7.5 grams of added sugar, which is approximately one and a half teaspoons. This is much less than the daily recommended intake limits of sugar for children.
"Bournvita contains nutrients namely Vitamin A, C, D, B12, Iron, Zinc, Copper and Selenium which supports the immune system. These have been part of our formulation and we have always called out 'Helps with healthy functioning of the immune system' on the back of our pack for several years (even before the Covid-19 pandemic).
"Caramel Colour (150 C) is within permissible limits as per guidelines defined by regulations.
"All ingredients are safe, approved for use and within permissible limits as per the regulatory guidelines."
Refuting the Bournvita spokesperson's argument, Dr Arun Gupta, central coordinator, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), convener, Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi), and former member, PM’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges, came up with a statement stating that "ultra processed foods" are "inherently harmful."
Stating that the presenter's video -- now taken down -- is "scientific", in that it makes "people aware of the harmful product", Dr Gupta said, "Scientifically crafted means nothing to health if the product is harmful. Whole of Cadbury team should listen to this video by one of the best scientists of the world." 
Further underlining that the presenter's video did a lot of public service to make people aware, Dr Gupta said, "Colours, additives, emulsifiers and raising agents are all harmful to human health. Enough evidence is available if Cadbury or anyone else wanted to read and reflect."
Click here to watch the controversial video 
The controversy erupted after the presenter, through his Instagram handle, The FoodPharmer, called out "misleading information on Cadbury's Bournvita product", which claimed "improved brain activity, improved muscles, improved immune system and improved bone health."
The presenter, Revant Himatsingka, who goes by the handle ‘Food Pharmer’ on Instagram with over 128K followers, posted the video on April 1, 2023, criticized Cadbury’s Bournvita for ‘miscommunicating’ on its package about the health drink’s ‘nutritional value’.
He also spoke about how the back of the pack has fine print about the ‘nutritional’ element of the drink, while the front makes tall claims intended to attract parents (much like the way the brand advertises).
"To be sure, Cadbury’s Bournvita is not alone in this front vs. back game – we could easily add every other so-called ‘health’ drink to this list – Boost, Complan, Horlicks, Milo, etc. It so happened that Revant picked one brand to make this point about sugar addiction caused by such products", commented Karthik S in a blog referring to Revant's post. 
Revant’s video went viral, with over 12 million views, and was shared by many celebrities, forcing Bournvita to take legal recourse to "avoid misinformation". It also issued a statement to clarify and share the "correct facts to allay the concerns of our consumers."
Commented Karthik, "I can completely understand why Revant decided to delete the video and apologize. A legal notice from a corporate behemoth like Cadbury is not worth fighting against, particularly by an individual."
He continued, "As for Cadbury’s stand in managing this reputational crisis, what they did first, by offering a clarification, was quite appropriate and needed. The truth is their first and best defense, provided they have a compelling truth to counter Revant’s claims.
"If they had focused on the facts and called out specific exaggerations of Revant, their clarification would have been discussed in sync with Revant’s viral video", the blogger added.
However, he regretted, "The brand decided to shut Revant through a legal notice. Such intimidatory tactics don’t always go down well and result in what we call the ‘Streisand effect’ (attempts to hide, remove, or censor information can lead to the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information)."
"Understandably, there are a lot more people sharing Revant’s original video now, along with news reports of a ‘health influencer being sued by Bournvita’", he added. 
Already, a Modi bhakt, @i_desi_surya has approvingly posted Revant's video.
Also, a Twitter handle, @TheLiverDoc in a Twitter thread said  this:
"Instagram influencer, The FoodPharmer deleted his video, calling out the misleading information on Cadbury's Bounrvita product. Essentially, the product claimed improved brain activity, improved muscles, improved immune system and improved bone health.
All of these require empirical evidence for confirmation.
"Cadbury's has made a statement that they have designed the product on scientific basis, which means there has to be published studies backing their claims.
Here are the ones I found:
"1. A study showed that caffeine content in Bournvita was higher than other similar cocoa based products. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10798344/
"2. Pregnant women in Nigeria avoided Bournvita due to fear of developing "big babies" and complicated labour/delivery. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6125444/
"3. Another study showed that Bournvita product changes color due to inherent changes in pH due to its "sugary" content. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
"4. The last paper I came across anything remotely to Cadbury's the maker of Bournvita is this one: "Critics say UNICEF-Cadbury partnership is mere sugarwashing." - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
"Basically, the claims of scientific methods or studies and the scientific evidence for everything that is written on the Bournvita product is not backed by good evidence and thus, Cadbury's claims are misleading on muscle and bone growth, immunity enhancement and brain development - there are no controlled studies to show the same.
Considering the high sugar content of 71%, per serve 20g has 14.2g sugar which is approx. 57% of recommended upper daily limit and this will only increase if more milk is added, or additional sugar used over the day. Hence "claim" that using the product as advised is safe is also a misleading one.
"Big Food Pharma must come with empirical evidence rather than muscle tactics to prove a point. Herbalife did the same with me when I reported on the death of a young woman after consuming Herbalife products.
"The motto of FMCG industry is:
"'Protect the business at any cost, call out and persecute the whistleblowers and keep the consumers ignorant all the while throwing them under the bus'."

Comments

A Mumbaikar and an Indian said…
To think that I grew up with Bournvita!
This is an unpleasant bit of information and I hope it reaches everybody so they can avoid using it.
April 24, 2023
Post a Comment

TRENDING

US-China truce temporary, larger trade war between two economies to continue

By Prabir Purkayastha   The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan, South Korea on 30 October 2025 may have brought about a temporary relief in the US-China trade war. But unless we see the fine print of the agreement, it is difficult to assess whether this is a temporary truce or the beginning of a real rapprochement between the two nations. The jury is still out on that one and we will wait for a better understanding of what has really been achieved in Busan.
Post a Comment
»

When growth shrinks people: Capitalism and the biological decline of the U.S. population

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Critically acclaimed Hungarian-American economic historian and distinguished scholar of economic anthropometric history, Prof. John Komlos (Professor Emeritus, University of Munich), who pioneered the study of the history of human height and weight, has published an article titled “The Decline in the Physical Stature of the U.S. Population Parallels the Diminution in the Rate of Increase in Life Expectancy” on October 31, 2025, in the forthcoming issue of Social Science & Medicine (SSM) – Population Health, Volume 32, December 2025. The findings of the article present a damning critique of the barbaric nature of capitalism and its detrimental impact on human health, highlighting that the average height of Americans began to decline during the era of free-market capitalism. The study draws on an analysis of 17 surveys from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (...
Post a Comment
»

Mergers and privatisation: The Finance Minister’s misguided banking agenda

By Thomas Franco   The Finance Minister has once again revived talk of merging two or three large public sector banks to make them globally competitive. Reports also suggest that the government is considering appointing Managing Directors in public sector banks from the private sector. Both moves would strike at the heart of India’s public banking system . Privatisation undermines the constitutional vision of social and economic justice, and such steps could lead to irreversible damage.
Post a Comment
»

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah  Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".
51 comments
»

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By  A  Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.
Post a Comment
»

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...
Post a Comment
»

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu.  He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat
1 comment
»

Gujarat civil society to move Supreme Court against controversial electoral roll revision

By Rajiv Shah    A recent, well-attended meeting of Gujarat civil society activists in Ahmedabad , held to discuss the impact of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, has decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court against the controversial exercise initiated by the Election Commission of India (ECI) across the country. Announcing this, senior High Court advocate Anand Yagnik , who heads the Gujarat chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said that a committee has already been formed to examine the pros and cons of SIR. “While the SIR exercise began in Gujarat on November 4 and is scheduled to continue for a month, we will file a supporting petition in the case against SIR in the Gujarat High Court or the Supreme Court after observing how it proceeds in the state,” he said. Yagnik’s announcement followed senior advocate Shahrukh Alam —who is arguing the SIR case in the Supreme Court—urging Gujarat’s civil society to also file ...
Post a Comment
»

Shrinking settlements, fading schools: The Tibetan exile crisis in India

By Tseten Lhundup*  Since the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala has established the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) as the guardian of Tibetan culture and identity. Once admired for its democratic governance , educational system , and religious vitality , the exile community now faces an alarming demographic and institutional decline. 
Post a Comment
»