OTTAWA — A top nutrition expert at Health Canada believes The Coca-Cola Company misleads consumers into thinking its vitaminwater line of drinks constitutes a healthy beverage option, internal records show.

The frank admission from the department’s chief of nutrition evaluation in the food directorate, shared with other senior Health Canada officials, even suggests the company should consider qualifying the word “water” in the name of the beverage.

“I find calling these products ‘waters’ is misleading, in particular, given that they have sugars added to them. Perhaps the word ‘waters’ could be put in quotes,” according to the newly released correspondence, obtained by Postmedia News under access to information.

After water, sugar is the most significant ingredient in vitaminwater in terms of quantity, containing the equivalent of about eight teaspoons of sugar in each individual bottle.

A Health Canada nutrition expert made the statement in private correspondence in December 2008 in response to media lines prepared by Health Canada communications staff to defend how the department regulates the vitamin-enhanced beverage.

Since then, lawyers specializing in class-actions in Canada and the United States have picked up this theme by seeking redress for consumers through potential suits. Health Canada, meanwhile, has continued to stick to its official talking points about its oversight of vitaminwater.

The beverage, fortified with vitamins and sold in flavours using health buzz words such as “defense,” “multi-v,” and “restore,” is classified as a natural health product (NHP), with Health Canada granting product licences to various flavours with accompanying health claims about how the product helps to keep people healthy.

This designation as a natural health product means Coca-Coca is not required to list the amount of sugar in vitaminwater in a nutrition fact table on the back of the label — a requirement for all food or drink products regulated under Canada’s food regulations.

Class-action specialists in British Columbia and Alberta flagged this specific issue in statements of claim filed earlier this year against Coca-Cola and Energy Brands Inc., alleging the company misleads consumers by presenting only positive healthy benefits of vitaminwater.

The suits, seeking certification in upcoming hearings, highlight that in addition to its name, each bottle of vitaminwater is labelled as a “nutrition enhanced water beverage” and marketed as a beneficial alternative to sugary soft drinks, even though a standard 591 ml bottle of vitaminwater contains 32 grams of sugar, compared to 42 grams of sugar in a 355 ml can of Coke and 38 grams of sugar in Sprite.

The American Heart Association recommends the maximum daily consumption of added sugars is 25 grams for women and 37.5 grams for men.

“The defendants deliberately omit to state the quantity of sugar contained within vitaminwater on bottle labels and market vitaminwater as a healthy source of beneficial dietary supplements. This marketing message is false because each bottle of vitaminwater contains similar amounts of sugar as other sugary soft-drinks and, therefore, consumption of one bottle of vitaminwater has the same potential adverse health effects as consumption of those other sugary soft-drinks,” according to the statements.

The Canadian efforts to certify vitaminwater class actions come on the heels of a legal victory last year in U.S. Federal Court, where the judge denied Coca-Cola’s motion to dismiss a class action by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The advocacy group alleges deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on the vitaminwater line of drinks.

Coca-Cola, in its unsuccessful motion to dismiss the case in U.S. Federal Court, had argued that listing the sugar among the ingredients on its label, was sufficient. The company also argued that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”

The names of the drinks, along with other statements on the label, “have the potential to reinforce a consumer’s mistaken belief that the product is comprised of only vitamins and water,” wrote federal Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York.

Bill Jeffery, the national director for the Canadian branch of CSPI, said Health Canada’s record on “this liquid candy” and approving “ridiculously misleading marketing claims to promote it as a kind of medicine” shows how the department “seems to have lost its way” as a regulator.

A spokesman for Coca-Cola Canada did not reply to requests for comment about the opinion of vitaminwater expressed privately by a high-ranking nutrition expert at Health Canada or the potential class actions in British Columbia and Alberta.

The Coca-Cola Company acquired Energy Brands Inc., known as glaceau, with its range of enhanced water brands, including vitaminwater, for $4.1 billion U.S. in 2007.

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