Drink manufacturers take steps to reduce calorie content

The soft drinks industry has committed to improve the health of the British public by reducing the number of calories in its products.
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While soft drinks only contribute around 3% of the calorific content of the average consumer’s diet, the industry has pledged to do more to help to ensure that the nation is fitter and healthier.

What is the pledge?

The Calorie Reduction Pledge is the promise made by the soft drinks industry to make its products healthier and less calorific. This is being done in a number of ways.

Drinks producers such as The Feel Good Drinks Co, Lucozade Ribena Suntory and Coca Cola have pledged to reduce the number of calories in particular products or ranges; for example, Britvic has agreed to only produce the No Added Sugar version of its popular product Fruit Shoot. As a result, the company estimates that 2.2 billion calories will be taken out of the children’s soft drinks category.

Several major retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and the Co-operative, have agreed to reduce the calorie content of their own soft drink ranges; for example, Asda promised to reduce added sugar by 22% across its own brand range of soft drinks, equating to the removal of 3.25 billion calories and 814.2 tonnes of sugar from the soft drinks on the market.

Leading soft drinks companies have also agreed to increase spending on marketing their low- and no-calorie drinks options. PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Britvic and AG Barr have all pledged to alter their advertising strategies to ensure that lower calorie drinks are more prominent in their marketing campaigns.

Major drinks producers and distributors have also developed campaigns to educate and encourage young children to lead active lifestyles in an attempt to help to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity in the UK.

What impact will this have?

The aim of the pledge is to help tackle issues such as obesity and heart disease in the British public. Major retailers, convenience stores, licensed premises and cafes will all stock healthier produce, while drinks from a draught soft drink supplier, such as http://empireuk.com, will be lower in calories and better for consumers’ health.

While soft drink producers have long publicised the nutritional information of their products, this pledge will vastly improve the healthiness of products and public wellbeing.

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