Starbucks, one of America’s biggest restaurant chains, summed up its decision to use sugar in its food products: “We heard loud and clear from our customers that they want food, when they purchase food at Starbucks, to be made of high-quality ingredients and from simple recipes.”
Of course, those same consumers would probably be fuming if many of these same manufacturers scrapped all-natural sugar and replaced it with artificial or man-made sweeteners such as neotame, sorbitol and polydextrose.
A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 52% of parents make a conscious effort to avoid artificial sweeteners, yet few are actually able to identify common sweeteners used in food products.
With such overwhelming evidence that consumers want natural products such as sugar, you might think a move to artificials would never happen. Well, think again.
While the European Food Safety Authority recently found insufficient evidence to set sugar intake recommendations in the EU, the US government is under pressure to recommend limiting Americans’ sugar intake to as little as possible. If this happens, manufacturers would be left with little recourse but to reformulate their recipes. And if they reformulate, many consumers may not even realise it.
When shown the ingredient label of a popular children’s product that’s given to dehydrated infants, only 4% of parents could identify all the sweeteners. About one in seven (13%) of parents couldn’t identify any of the four sweeteners used.
Considering 87% of parents say the sweetener used in a product is at least somewhat important to them when making food decisions for their kids, they have a desire and a right to know what sweeteners they’re feeding their family.
The Sugar Association has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to follow Canada’s lead and clear up consumer confusion with front-of-package labelling for artificial sweeteners. For nearly five years, this petition has been tangled in government red tape while new sweeteners come on the market each year (and some even change their names to be less recognisable).
Consumers are confused by the more than 25 sweeteners being used in the US market. Consumers have a right to know what’s in their food, and the current FDA labelling standards for sweeteners aren’t working. It’s time for FDA sweetener labelling standards to reflect consumer demand.
We’re confident that when given the facts, consumers will make the same choice people have made for generations: all-natural sugar.
Sugar is only 15 calories per teaspoon, natural, safely used for more than 2,000 years, and a sweetener consumers can easily recognise and pronounce. Sugar, when consumed in moderation, is part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. Sugar is and continues to be the gold standard of sweeteners for consumers.
Andy Briscoe is president and CEO of The Sugar Association
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024