May 19, 2015
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Supermarket giant Tesco will cut the sugar content in all its own label soft drinks by five per cent amid health concerns, according to Local World.
With obesity and Type 2 diabetes on the rise, the move has been hailed as a landmark by health experts.
Tesco is the biggest seller of soft drinks in the UK, responsible for over 30 per cent of sales.
The supermarket plans to reduce the sugar content this year, and the pressure is now on for other supermarkets to follow suit.
The move comes after Tesco removed sweets and chocolates from their checkouts earlier this year in a bid to get people eating healthier.
And now it has signed a long-term deal with Refresco Gerber, the brains behind global juices such as Del Monte and Sunny D, to help develop new technology to reduce sugar levels in own-brand beverages – which may include replacing sugar with substitutes, such as plant-based sweetener stevia, which was launched in 2012.
Professor Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London and chairman of campaign group Action on Sugar (AOS), told The Grocer Magazine: "This is exactly the sort of action that we have been campaigning for."
"Our aim now will be to force (Health Secretary) Jeremy Hunt and (Public Health Minister) Jane Ellison to use this as the start of a major programme of sugar reduction."
Action on Sugar is calling for a sugar reduction in food and drinks of 40% by 2020, but Professor MacGregor admitted this latest commitment from Tesco was both a boost and a step in the right direction.
"It doesn't really matter if it's 10 per cent or five per cent a year," he said. "The fact is that Tesco has acknowledged that we need to have a programme of sugar reduction."