In June 2018, the Australian Beverages Council announced a pledge that will see the non-alcoholic beverage industry commit to a 20 per cent reduction in sugar across the industry’s portfolio by 2025.

There are two tiers to the Sugar Reduction Pledge – Signatories and Supporters

Signatories

Australia’s leading beverage companies including Asahi Lifestyle Beverages, Coca-Cola Amatil, Coca-Cola Australia and PepsiCo committed, as Signatory Members to the pledge, to reduce sugar by 20 per cent by 2025.

Signatory Members to the pledge will reduce sugar across the industry by 10 per cent on average by 2020, with a further commitment to reduce sugar by a total of 20 per cent on average over the full period of the pledge by 2025, and will be achieved by average reductions in total grams of sugar per 100mL.

All products represented by Members who sign the pledge are included in the commitment, with the reduction in total sugar measured across all Members party to the pledge.

Total sugar is quantified by aggregated sales weighted volume data across all ABCL Members that sign the pledge. Assessment will be carried out on a baseline of 1 January 2015.

Second progress report, 2020

Australia’s largest beverage companies have marked a major milestone by announcing a 12 per cent reduction in sugar, in the second progress report on the beverage industry’s flagship pledge.

The second major progress report on the pledge shows that the industry is making significant progress towards its target, largely as a result of innovation that has led to the introduction of more low and no-sugar drinks and reformulation of existing products.

For the period 1 January 2020 – 30 June 2020, the sugar reduction progress has been influenced by COVID-19, as consumers lifestyles shifted, so did their beverage consumption.

• Across all pledge signatories, total sales volumes decreased which has resulted in a reduction in sugar (g/100mL). This is due to a combination of both decreasing sales volume in drinks with regular sugar (>2.5g/100mL), and decreasing sales volume in other categories of drinks with no and low sugar (<2.5g/100mL).
• Pledge signatories indicated that large decreases had occurred in sales volume for categories such as still water, pre-mixed beverages and sugar-based sports drinks. Pledge signatories attributed this to consumers spending more time at home, closing of bars, clubs and venues, and the temporary suspension of organised sports.
• Some of the pledge signatories noted increased sales volume across sparkling waters and low and no sugar sports drinks. These pledge signatories attributed this to an increase in the purchase of sparkling waters during the initial pantry stocking stage of COVID-19, while low and no sugar sports drinks sales increased as more customers exercised at home. These increases did not outweigh the overall reduction in sales volume.
• Some of the pledge signatories noted an increase in sales volume in low and no sugar varieties. These increases did not outweigh the overall reduction in sales volume.

Across the initiative, the most powerful levers of sugar reduction include:

• Reformulating existing products;
• Increasing the sales volume of low and no sugar varieties; and
• Introducing additional low and no sugar varieties into the market (new product development).

For the full report, please click on the link below.

Sugar Reduction Pledge – Second Progress Report 2020

First progress report, 2019

On 25 November 2019, the Australian Beverages Council announced the first progress report on the Pledge.

The seven per cent reduction in sugar achieved in the years 2015-2018 was calculated as follows:

Aggregated weighted average grams of sugar per 100mL of non-alcoholic beverage has been calculated for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 by applying a weighting to corresponding volume for the product in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. A comparison of the results from 2015 with 2018 provides the aggregate reductions period on period and in aggregate over the four years.

Data has been consistently collected and collated across the reportable years for all products/recipes.

For the full report, please click on the link below.

Sugar Reduction Pledge – First Progress Report 2019

How will the industry achieve its sugar reduction targets?

The commitment applies to all categories of non-alcoholic drinks represented by Members of the Australian Beverages Council that are signatories to the pledge, including: carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, sports and electrolyte drinks, frozen drinks, bottled and packaged waters, juice and fruit drinks, cordials, iced teas, ready-to-drink coffees, flavoured milk products and flavoured plant milks.

Some of the instruments Signatory Members party to the Pledge may contribute to the reductions targets could include:

• Increasing the volume sales of low and no sugar varieties.
• Introducing additional low and no sugar varieties into the market by 2020 and 2025.
• Encouraging sales through the promotion and marketing of low or no sugar varieties.
• Introducing smaller pack sizes or reducing average container sizes.
• Investing in improved nutritional literacy.
• Promoting the consumption of bottled water by young Australians and only milk and water for the very young.
• A cap in sugar content on all existing drinks brands.
• A cap in sugar on new recipes launched in Australia.
• Reformulating existing products.
• Where practical, transition vending machines to include more, low or no sugar varieties.

KPMG was appointed as the independent aggregator to measure the progress towards the Pledge being achieved.