Substitute sugar or face public shaming
Food and drink manufacturers face public shaming and risk missing significant commercial benefits if they don’t substitute sugar with other sweeteners, nutrition policy expert Jack Winkler claimed in January.
Winkler warned businesses they faced naming and shaming from CASH, who were driving AoS’s campaign.
Confectionery, dairy goods firms and breakfast cereal makers in particular could easily find themselves in the firing line, because they had been slow to take advantage of the benefits of sweeteners, he claimed.
“Only two categories have really made use of sweeteners: gum and soft drinks. There are technical difficulties [with reformulating with sweeteners], but the food industry has been slow to adopt new technologies in other categories on a commercial scale,” he added.
Sugar substitutes cost substantially less than sugar, so offered extra margin if end products were priced similarly to full sugar equivalents, Winkler added.