WELLINGTON: The makers of Ribena pleaded guilty Tuesday to misleading the New Zealand public about the drink's health benefits after being exposed by two teenage girls in a school science experiment.

GlaxoSmithKline's embarrassment stemmed from a school science project done by Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo at an Auckland high school three years ago.

Their findings were initially ignored by the company but came to the attention of the Commerce Commission, a business watchdog, which brought the court action.

The multinational firm was fined 217,500 dollars (US$156,100) in the Auckland District Court for breaching fair trading laws with claims about the vitamin C content of the popular blackcurrant drink.

It was also ordered to run advertisements detailing the true contents of the drink sold in 20 countries worldwide.

Earlier the company admitted in court that its cartoned ready to drink Ribena had no detectable Vitamin C, despite claims it contained seven milligrams of the vitamin per 100 millilitres.

The company also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges.

Devathasan and Suo - then aged 14 - conducted tests showing Ribena contained much lower levels of vitamin C than other fruit juice-based drinks.

The girls said when they were ignored when they approached the company, but a television consumer rights show later picked up the story and brought it to the attention of the Commerce Commission.

Devathasan said Tuesday the pair were overwhelmed that their simple experiment had led to a court conviction.

"We're just blown away that anything we could have started could have blown up to something so huge," she told Radio New Zealand.

"Considering we were only 14 at the time, it's been a huge day." - AFP/yy