I know there’s a regular award for the most imperfect product – so here’s my nomination for the 2007 competition.

A while ago saw an ad on the TV for a soya milk tropical fruit drink (‘Adez’ is its name). Looked very appealing so when I saw it in the supermarket I checked it out. ‘Dairy free fruit drink’ it said…..

I was on the point of dropping a carton of it into the trolley when I spotted in the small print ‘not suitable for vegetarians’. What? Yes really!

The carton revealed that some additive or whatever was derived from animal bi-products. But there was also a jolly bit of text urging me to contact their Customer Careline if I had any queries because they wanted to respond to any questions I may have about the product.

So I found the website – a sub-division of Unilever http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/adez.asp. It even goes on about soya being a great alternative to animal protein. I completed an email form to ask why they didn’t make the product vegetarian and was told by the automated response that they ‘were glad I’d got my complaint off my chest and now I could relax and wait for their reply’.

I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath. That was three months ago and not a peep out of them. Honestly – how daft can you get!

Do you have any similar examples of the totally unnecessary inclusion of animal products in foods and/or poor explanations of why?