From today's Guardian:
Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings and colourings.
The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Proctor and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999 paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on betacarotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin.
The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for Sunny D and turning bright orange.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1730387,00.html












