Soft drinks upset Muslims

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First published on Thursday 16 October 2003:

Soft drinks upset Muslims

by Fiona Evans

Mosques are calling for stricter food labelling laws after learning alcohol contained in some soft drinks is not listed on labels.

Varieties of Ribena and Lucozade drinks made by GlaxoSmithKline use alcohol and its derivatives - banned for Muslims - as carrier agents for flavourings, vitamins or minerals.

But Government food regulations do not require manufacturers to reveal on a product's packaging if alcohol or animal products are contained in the flavourings in trace amounts.

Bradford Council For Mosques vice-president Ayub Laher said: "We should encourage manufacturers to tell people if these ingredients are in products. Even if alcohol is present in small amounts, we should be told. Under the Qur'an (Muslim holy book), selling, drinking or distributing alcohol are banned."

A shopkeeper binned his stock of Lucozade and Ribena as soon as he realised that what he had unwittingly been selling his Muslim customers was against their religion.

Basharat Rehman, who runs Haq's supermarket in Bradford's Legrams Lane, said: "Some Muslims will not even use aftershave because it contains alcohol. What really annoys me is that we can do nothing about this because it's legal."

Assistant manager Adil Khan said: "I frequently used to drink Lucozade and I am disgusted and disappointed with the Government for allowing this to go on."

British Soft Drinks Association spokes-man Richard Laming said: "Under the 1996 Food Labelling Regulations, manufacturers are not required to include the carrier of the flavour in the ingredients because any simple flavour could have up 50 ingredients.

"An ingredients list which had to include all of this would rapidly become confusing to the consumer. And all of these are in minute amounts."

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