We Are Committed
Europe’s soft drinks industry wants to continue to help Europeans manage their intake of added sugars from soft drinks and enable moderate consumption. We are committed to making the healthier choice the easy choice for consumers, as part of our contribution to the European Commission’s objective of a healthier and more sustainable food system.
Reducing Sugar and Offering Smaller Packages
Our sector is on a long-lasting journey to reduce added sugars in its soft drinks and to offer smaller package sizes to enable consumers to manage their consumption of soft drinks and support healthier diets. We are now taking a step forward and are committing to reducing the average content of added sugars in our beverages by another 10% from 2019-2025. This will represent an overall reduction of 33% in average added sugars in the past two decades.
Enhancing Our Responsible Marketing and Advertising Practices
Since 2006, we have pledged not to advertise any soft drinks to children under 12 on television and on the radio, in print and online, including social media and on company-owned websites. We are further strengthening our commitment not to market or advertise any soft drinks to children across all media. We are raising the minimum age limit to 13 years old and lowering the audience threshold to 30% so that in practice fewer young children will be directly exposed to advertising for any of its soft drinks.
Intensifying Our Efforts to Ensure Stringent School Policies
Our industry acknowledges the role of school policies in promoting healthier drink environments and it has always taken its responsibility in schools seriously. We will continue to act effectively and responsibly in schools by:
- NOT selling and advertising ANY soft drinks in EU primary schools;
- Offering ONLY no- and low-calorie soft drinks for sale in EU secondary schools and only in non-branded vending machines, without logos or commercial communications.
Providing Transparent and Effective Consumer Information
Front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) provides consumers with easily understandable information to help them make more informed dietary choices, encourages manufacturers to improve the nutritional content of the food they produce and offers them the opportunity through the nutritional labelling system to reward their reformulation efforts. We will continue to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based, EU-wide, harmonised and interpretative front-of-pack nutrition system that is meaningful for consumers, encourages food producers to reformulate and is developed under an EU governance model.
Blog article
This additional 10% reduction in added sugars underlines our sector’s collective proactivity and determination to contribute to healthier and balanced diets in Europe. We will continue to bring innovation and choice to consumers as we implement this pledge.
Ian Ellington
President, UNESDA
SVP and Chief Category Officer, PepsiCo Europe
We are a consumer-centric business and have always grown by staying close to the needs and wants of our consumers, stakeholders and society at large. We agree that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone and want to enable our consumers to better control their intake of added sugar from our beverages. Alongside our leading partners in Europe, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Coca-Cola HBC, we continue to work with industry peers to drive meaningful voluntary initiatives at scale and make the healthier choice the easy choice.
Nikos Koumettis
President, Europe at The Coca-Cola Company
Once again the actions of UNESDA and its members have demonstrated that our industry is committed to take positive actions that will drive the right behaviours and affect societal change. Our combined efforts on reducing sugar, increasing the availability of healthier drinks and encouraging responsible consumption demonstrate our commitment to action.
Peter Harding
CEO Suntory Beverage and Food Europe
Today’s announcement is another tangible demonstration of our support for the EU Commission’s objective of accelerating the transition to sustainable food systems. We will continue to scale our efforts, recognising that collective action is needed from all sectors in the food system to make a meaningful impact.
Zoran Bogdanovic
Chief Executive Officer, Coca-Cola HBC AG