Dive Brief:
- Reduced sugar products aren't impacting global retail sales for packaged foods and soft drinks (soda, juice, sports drinks, energy drinks, and flavored bottled water), making up only about 1% of total packaged foods sales and less than 10% of total soft drink sales in more than half of the countries, according to a recent Euromonitor study.
- Globally, the average consumer bought 36 grams of sugar per day in 2014, which grew at a rate of 2% annually from 2009 to 2014. Euromonitor expects that amount to rise by 3 more grams of sugar per day by 2019.
- The U.S. was the leader, with the average consumer buying 127 grams of sugar per day, and reduced sugar soft drinks sales accounted for more than 10% of total U.S. soft drink sales.
Dive Insight:
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization recommended that sugar intake be 10% or less of total caloric intake, which equates to around 50 grams of sugar per day.
Euromonitor also examined the compound annual growth rates for different types of sweeteners from 2010 to 2015, which came to 4% for fructose, above 2% for glucose/fructose syrups, sucrose, and saccharin, under 2% for brown sugar, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium, and under 1% for aspartame. Stevia, on the other hand, grew 50%.
Stevia-sweetened Coca-Cola Life generated about $125 million in sales in the past year, but considering the $50 billion spent on red-label Coca-Cola, those numbers pale in comparison.
Because the U.S. already consumes so much sugar, its growth rate was not as high as other countries, which are starting to consume more sugar per day. Growth rates came close to 5% for biscuits, cakes, chocolate confectionery, and pastries in regions like Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.