Soft drinks include a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages such as still drinks, carbonated drinks, energy drinks, iced teas, flavoured waters and sports drinks. They are offered in a range of packaging sizes and formats to suit every drinking occasion.
SOFT DRINKS CAN BE PART OF A HEALTHY AND BALANCED DIET
Soft drinks are one of the many beverage options available to consumers. They can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet. Our sector continues to increase our offer of low- and no-calories versions and smalller pack sizes to help consumers manage their sugar intake from soft drinks and to promote moderate consumption through portion control. Learn more about our actions here.
Published data shows that soft drinks contribute just 2 to 3% of total calories as added sugars to the daily diet of the average European.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS?
PACKAGING
Soft drinks are packaged in a number of different materials, packaging formats and sizes using recyclable materials. Packaging protects the quality of beverages, maintaining safety and quality. It also provides a platform to communicate with consumers by providing information such as details of ingredients or calories.
Soft drinks are available in both glass and PET bottles, in cans – both steel and aluminium, in cartons and in pouches. In bars and restaurants – the on-trade – soft drinks may also be served from a syphon mixer. Pack sizes range from single serve portions, for example of 150ml, 200ml, 250ml and 330ml – to larger pack sizes designed for sharing.
New reusable solutions using little to no packaging, such as home dispensers and on-the-go models, are also on offer to meet new consumption habits and improve our sector’s environmental footprint.
Soft drinks packaging is highly recyclable and increasingly recycled. Our sector made ambitious commitments to make sure our beverage packaging never ends up as litter and instead becomes more circular.
CALORIES
Consumers can choose between either a no-calorie or low-calorie soft drink, or a regular soft drink.
‘Energy-free’ or ‘no-calorie’ drinks – often referred to as ‘diet’ or ‘zero’ – contain no sugar and may only be allowed to contain a tiny amount of calories – up to a maximum of 4Kal/100ml.
Low-calorie drinks contain between 4 and 20 calories per 100ml.
These thresholds for ‘energy-free’ and ‘low-calorie’ drinks are set out in European legislation governing nutrition claims.
Some other calorie levels are not set out in legislation but include drinks that may be informally referred to as ‘mid-calorie’ or ‘regular’ soft drinks. A mid-calorie drink may typically contain around 21-30 calories per 100ml, while a regular soft drink typically contains between 31-40 calories per 100ml.
Low-and no-calorie versions now represent over 40% of sales in Europe – and over 50% in some markets.
WHAT ARE THE MOST FREQUENTLY USED INGREDIENTS IN SOFT DRINKS?
Soft drinks typically contain a wide range of ingredients. By far the largest component of all soft drinks is water. They may also contain some fruit juice or flavouring, together with a sweetener – in the form of either sugar or a low-calorie sweetener, and possibly a colour.
As a sector with a strong local dimension, we source over 85% of ingredients from across Europe. Citrus fruits from around the Mediterranean, soft fruits and berries from many markets and sugar beet from northern European countries.
The most frequently used ingredients in soft drinks include the following:
WATER
Water is the main ingredient in all soft drinks; it provides around 90% of a sugar-containing product and 98%-99% of no- and low-calorie versions.
FRUIT JUICE
Some soft drinks contain fruit juice as an ingredient.
Fruit juice is the liquid extracted from fruit by pressing or macerating the flesh. Probably the most recognisable is orange juice, a breakfast table staple, which is extracted from oranges. Other popular juices include apple, pineapple and grape. Within the EU, the name of a fruit or fruits used in conjunction with juice is only legally permitted to describe a product that is 100% fruit juice.
SUGARS
Sugars are carbohydrates and are a source of energy for the body. They are used in soft drinks to provide sweetness and mouthfeel to enhance the overall taste experience. A no-sugar or ‘sugar free’ drink contains no more than 0.5g sugars per 100ml. A low-sugar drink contains no more than 2.5g sugars per 100ml. These thresholds are set out in European legislation governing nutrition claims.
Sugars can be found naturally in fruits, berries, vegetables and honey or are used in the home or by food manufacturers as an ingredient in making other foods and beverages, including soft drinks.
There are no nutritional differences among sugars, whether they are naturally occurring or whether added to beverages or food. The most common sugars in soft drinks include:
- Sucrose – a disaccharide or double sugar made of equal parts of glucose and fructose. This sugar is commonly known as ‘table’ or ‘white’ sugar and is found naturally in sugar cane and sugar beet, as well as in many fruits and vegetables.
- Frutose – a monosaccharide or single sugar. It is also present in many fruits, vegetables and honey as either the monosaccharide itself or in combination with glucose as the disaccharide sucrose. Fructose is about 1 ½ times sweeter than sucrose.
- Glucose – is a monosaccharide, a single sugar. It is also present in some fruits, vegetables and other foods and beverages on its own or a part of a disaccharides; sucrose (in combination with fructose), maltose (in combination with another glucose) or lactose (in combination with galactose). Maltose and lactose are less sweet than sucrose. Some soft drinks may contain glucose syrup, which is a mixture of water and glucose.
- Glucose-fructose syrup also known as ‘isuglucose’ – a liquid mixture of approximately equal parts of glucose and fructose from wheat or potato starch – is used sometimes to sweeten foods and drinks and has about the same sweetness as sucrose.
FOOD ADDITIVES (INCLUDING SWEETENERS)
Colours, low-calorie sweeteners and preservatives are all included in the wide category of ingredients classified as food additives.
Food additives play a key role in maintaining the qualities and characteristics that consumers demand, keeping food safe, wholesome and appealing from farm to fork. Additives carry out a variety of useful functions which we often take for granted.
An additive is described as “any substance not normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used as a characteristics ingredient of food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, transport, or storage of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result, in it or its by-products becoming directly or indirectly a component of such foods” (Regulation (EC) 1333/2008).
Many food additives are naturally occurring, and some are even essential nutrients, it is the technical purpose that leads to these being classified as food additives and given an E-number.
Food additives are very carefully regulated and the general criteria for their use is that they perform a useful, technological purpose, are safe and do not mislead the consumer. In Europe, all food additives are clearly labelled by law, so they can readily be avoided by those with – or believe they have – specific sensitivities.
Let’s look into a bit more detail at colours and sweeteners which are commonly used groups of additives used in soft drinks:
- Colours
Colours are used in soft drinks to add or restore colour in order to enhance visual appeal and help preserve the identity or character by which drinks are recognised by consumers.
The primary reasons for adding colours to foods include:
– To offset colour loss due to exposure to light, air, extremes of temperature, moisture and storage conditions;
– To compensate for natural or seasonal variations, e.g in fruit ingredients, or the effects of processing and storage to meet consumer expectations;
– To enhance colours that occur naturally but at levels weaker than those usually associated with a given food.
- Sweeteners
Low- and no-calorie sweeteners are food ingredients used in foods and drinks to provide a sweet taste with no or hardly any calories. This makes them a useful tool in helping consumers to manage their total calorie intake as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Low- and no-calorie sweeteners have a much higher intensity of sweetness per gram than sugar, which is the reason why they can be used in very small quantities to achieve the same level of sweetness of sugar. The four most frequently used sweeteners in soft drinks in Europe are acesulfame K, aspartame, steviol gylcosides (stevia) and sucralose.
FLAVOURS
Flavours are present in virtually every soft drink. They may be obtained from natural or artificial sources and are used to respond to increasing consumer demands for a wide spectrum of different tasting foods and rinks. Natural flavours are derived from a wide range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, bark, leaves, herbs, spices and oils. Artificial flavours are manufactured synthethically.
CAFFEINE
Caffeine is one of the most extensively studied ingredients in the food supply and has been used safely and with pleasure for hundreds of years. Moderate caffeine consumption has been recognised as safe – even for pregnant women – by a wide range of experts and government agencies.
In its in-depth 2015 assessment on caffeine, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) confirmed safe daily caffeine intakes for various population groups: i.e. up to 3 mg per kg of body weight for children and adolescents (3-18 years) and up to 400 mg for adults (200 mg for pregnant and breastfeeding women).
Caffeine gives a slightly bitter taste. It is mostly found in colas as a flavour or at higher levels in “energy” drinks as an ingredient.
UNESDA members comply with the EU Food Information to Consumers Regularion 1169/2011, which requires additional labelling for beverages containing more than 150mg/l of caffeine, such as energy drinks. The wording ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’ must be placed in the same field of vision as the name of the beverage, followed by indication of the quantity of caffeine.
There is also a wide range of caffeine-free colas and other non-alcoholic beverages for consumers who prefer to consume beverages without caffeine.