Soft Drink Industry Lowers Added Sugar in Europe

BRUSSELS—Members of the Union of European Soft Drinks Associations (UNESDA) plan to reduce added sugars in their beverages by 10% by 2025.

The new targets represent a 33% drop in added sugars over the past 20 years, building on prior efforts to reduce sugar 14.6% in 2019 and 13.3% in 2015.

While the new goals are “very ambitious,” Nicholas Hodac, director-general of UNESDA, said the union is “very confident that we will deliver on our new pledge. We will do so through increasing our efforts on the reformulation of existing products and innovation of new products, including using low-calorie sweeteners,” Food Ingredients First reports.

UNESDA members will also bring new products to market in smaller pack sizes and will continue to promote no- and low-sugar beverages.

“Not only are governments progressively enforcing sugar tax and nutritional targets but consumers are now expecting natural solutions, with cleaner and shorter ingredient lists that are free of additives,” said Marc Lejeune, taste business development for Sweet & Beverage for Kerry Europe and Russia.

Manufacturers have developed different strategies to meet these goals, including reformulating brands and adding healthier options.

“It is not only spreading in Europe with soda taxes on high-content sugar products in most EU countries, but these taxes and other governmental strategies around warning icons, traffic lights, and advertising limitations are also on the rise worldwide, especially in Latin America. In Europe, the nutritional claim on ‘low sugars/no sugars added’ is the most used claim,” said Carole Petitjean, head of corporate communications at Roquette.

In the area of sustainability, UNESDA pledged earlier this year to accelerate the transition to a circular economy as part of its Circular Packaging Vision 2030. The group has pledged that “EU beverage packaging will be fully circular by 2030: 905 collected, PET bottles made from 100% recycled and/or renewable material, and increased use of refillables.”

Ian Ellington, UNESDA president and SVP and chief category officer, PepsiCo Europe, said, “Our goal is that beverage packaging achieves full circularity and is recognized as a resource in a circular economy: It has value, is recyclable, is collected and used as recycled content. We believe that packaging is a resource that should never be wasted and are taking numerous actions to achieve full circularity and support the European Commission’s agenda of accelerating the transition towards a green economy.”

Soft drinks have long been a draw to pull customers into convenience stores. To see more about this powerful product category, be sure to pick up your copy of the NACS State of the Industry Report of 2020 Data.

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