Tesco Commits to Major Sugar Reduction Programme for Own-Label Soft Drinks

21 May 2015 --- Tesco has become the first major British retailer to commit to a major sugar reduction programme with a 5% year-on-year, open-ended reduction in sugar across its entire sugary soft drinks range. The news has triggered campaign group Action on Sugar to call on the UK’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP to implement this strategy across the whole food and drink industry.

Action on Sugar, which said it welcomes the news by Tesco, has developed a coherent action plan to reduce excess calories in the UK’s diet by gradually reducing the amount of sugars added to soft drinks, and to reduce the sweetness so people get used to less sugar. 

This is a strategy that was first undertaken by Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) and the Food Standards’ Agency for salt reduction, and has led to a 15% reduction in salt intakes, a fall in population blood pressure and 8,500 fewer deaths per year from strokes and heart attacks, with cost savings to the NHS of £1.5billion a year.  

Tesco has agreed to an incremental, unobtrusive, reformulation strategy on soft drinks to include: 

1. The removal of all added sugar from the “Kids” category in Sept (Brand & Own Label) 

2. The reformulation of Tesco Own Label full sugar products by 5% every year on-going 

3. Start to move towards removing all Added Sugar from mainstream squash (added sugar has already been removed from own label and Robinsons) 

4. Focus on water, squash and flavoured water to promote healthier lives

Professor Graham MacGregor, Chairman of Action on Sugar, Queen Mary University of London said, “Incremental, unobtrusive reformulation is the key way of reducing calories across all sweetened drinks – merely having the option of ‘diet’ or ‘no sugar’ products does not work, particularly for the most socially deprived.  We are delighted that Tesco has agreed that this is exactly the sort of action that we need, and all other retailers must follow suit.”

“The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP can no longer ignore the fact that the current nutrition policy, whereby the food industry is allowed to police themselves (the Responsibility Deal) is, unsurprisingly, not working.  The UK requires the implementation of this coherent strategy, starting by setting incremental sugar reduction targets for soft drinks across the whole sector.  With robust enforcement if they do not comply.” 

The salt reduction programme pioneered by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), which set targets for the food industry to add less salt to all of their products, over a period of time, has been a most successful nutritional policy in the UK. Salt intake has fallen in the UK by 15% (between 2001-2011) and most products in the supermarkets have been reduced between 20 to 40%. 

A similar programme can now be developed to gradually reduce the amount of added sugar, and the sweetness, in food and soft drinks by setting targets for all foods and soft drinks where sugar has been added, the campaign group said. Action On Sugar has calculated that a 19% reduction in sugar added to all soft drinks, over the next four years is equivalent to removing approx. 2 teaspoons of sugar per can, and would result in 477 billion calories being removed from the UK diet, approx. 21kcal per person per day, and more in the socially deprived, who are much more prone to obesity. 

Katharine Jenner, Campaign Director for Action on Sugar said “We have become a nation hooked on the white stuff, expecting all our food and drink to taste incredibly sweet, and it is making us overweight and obese.  If we can slowly and gradually reduce the sugar and the sweetness, as we have already done for salt, we can all get used to far less sugar.