The lobby group Action for Sugar are calling for a bold approach in creating a level playing field for the food & drink industry as over a third of drinks and sweet products sold in major high street coffee shops exceed an adult’s daily limit of sugar per serve
Their research found that the highest combination of food and drink sold in coffee shops can contain 5 times an adult’s maximum daily sugar limit
With more than one in two young adults aged 25-34 living with overweight and obesity and one in three adults aged 25-34 years suffering from untreated tooth decay in the UK, Action on Sugar is calling for greater transparency over a ‘scandalous’ lack of nutrition information available at point of purchase and new levies to be introduced to encourage healthier food and drink across the board.
Whilst certain companies are required, by law, to display the calorie content of food and drink at the point of purchase, details about the sugar content are often limited.
Their research reveals that 782 sweet food and drink products surveyed in nine leading high street coffee shops were often “insufficiently labelled for consumers. Over half would be marked ‘red’ (high in total sugars) if nutrition information was fully transparent. Astonishingly, just one food item (a Greggs All Butter Croissant) was low in sugar.
To put this into perspective, a visit to a coffee shop could see a person consume up to 39 teaspoons of sugar and a colossal 1,390 calories (equivalent to two and a half ready meal lasagnes ) with one of the following food and drink combinations
Dr Kawther Hashem, Campaign Lead at Action on Sugar says: “The use of levies is an effective lever to encourage companies to reduce sugar and calories in their products. The Soft Drinks Industry Levy is a key example of this which successfully removed a massive 46,000 tonnes of sugar from these drinks as well as raising millions of pounds which has been invested in children’s health. We now need to see similar levies introduced across other categories to shift the market towards a healthier direction.”
Zoe Davies, Nutritionist at Action on Sugar says: “It’s incredible how easy it is to unknowingly consume 39 teaspoons of sugar and over 1,300 calories with a simple drink and cake purchase – all of which is highly unnecessary to taste great. What’s more, it’s unacceptable that consumers are often left in the dark as product information about sugar content is not displayed at the point of sale and online PDF documents are unavailable or difficult to find and understand. This is why clearer labelling should be a must, so people know exactly what they are buying.”
