Find out how dentistry student volunteers created a video to highlight misconceptions about ‘healthy’ fruit snacks
Barts Community Smiles (BCS) are a dental student group from Queen Mary University of London that aims to raise awareness of oral health and deliver basic oral health promotion in the local community. Barts Community Smiles are one of a number of volunteering groups run by and for students in our Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.
In 2020, they were contacted by Action on Sugar (a group of specialists affiliated with the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London) to join them in an important project. They wanted to raise awareness on the misleading claims made by fruit snacks companies and the effect of high sugar snacks on health.
In light of the recent COVID-19 restrictions, BCS produced an online informative video to raise awareness of their recent campaign about the misconceptions about fruit snacks. Claims and statements such as 'No added sugar', '1 of your 5 a day', and 'naturally occurring sugars' regularly appear on these products. There are in fact a lot of hidden sugars in fruit snacks and labelling on these products can be quite confusing. By demonstrating key messages and easy to understand information the video is important in tackling misconceptions and addressing key facts.