The European soft drinks is to voluntarily stop selling drinks containing added sugars in secondary schools across the European Union.
The industry’s trade body UNESDA – whose member include PepsiCo, Nestlé Waters, Coca Cola, Red Bull and Britvic – says that the move will affect 50,000 secondary schools and more than 40 million young people in 28 countries.
The new commitment is due to be fully implemented by the end of 2018. From then UNESDA member companies will provide only no- and low-calories soft drinks to secondary school. The association also says that it accepts that “water must remain the foremost drink available to schoolchildren”.
UNESDA says that the development supports a previous pledge by members to reduce added sugars in beverages by 10% by 2020.
But health campaigners say that the soft drinks industry is only implementing voluntary sugar reduction measures to avoid tough sanctions by European and national regulators. UNESDA sponsors a website called ‘Why Food and Drink Taxes Won’t Work’, which forms part of the soft drinks industry’s efforts to dissuade regulators from imposing a sugar tax on the soft drinks industry, which has been identified as a priority by health campaigners and doctors’ bodies.