Health Minister Yaakov Litzman amended regulations to ban non-healthy foods from public schools. He then spoke out against “Eating a mountain of jelly donuts” on Chanukah and now his ministry is taking on a new Tnuva Dairy product, ganache with 39% fat content sold under the ‘Yolo’ line.

The product contains a mixture of bitter chocolate with 60% cocoa, and ganache which is a mixture of the chocolate and cream. It appears the product, manufactured for Tnuva in Belgium, has been introduced to the market to determine if it will be picked up by consumers, only planned until April 2017 unless it becomes a hit.

The product is sold in packages of four 45-gram puddings, advertising to contain less sugar than other comparable daily items, boasting only 194 calories per container. Perhaps more impressive is each 45-gram contained has 16.6 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams and 13.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams (5.9 grams per container).

Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar-Siman Tov is angered over the large food companies, which are releasing such unhealthy products; citing this product from Tnuva and that its competitor, Strauss Dairy on Friday will be releasing a new pudding which contained six spoons of sugar. He explains the ganache from Tnuva has three times the fat as compared to any other similar product on the market today. He told Channel 2 News the food companies are not worrying about the health of consumers to the ministry is taking a stand.

The ministry’s Committee to Advance Regulations in late November 2016 a regulation that will compel companies to put a red sticker on foods containing too much sugar, sodium and saturated fat. Stage one of this regulation takes effect in the beginning of 2018 however it will still permit many unhealthy products to be marketed without the sticker. The regulation goes into full effect in July 2019.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)