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“While shopping, it’s worth taking a closer look”
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At the Max Rubner-Institut (MRIshort forMax Rubner Institute), Dr Corinna Gréa observes changes in the levels of sugar, salt, and fat in processed foods – and whether more sweeteners are used.
With its “National Reduction and Innovation Strategy”, the German federal government aims to reduce sugar, salt, and fat in processed foods. The MRIshort forMax Rubner Institute is carrying out an accompanying product monitoring to analyse the nutrition declaration provided on the packaging of certain products in order to track changes in the levels of sugar, fats, and salt over time. The data from this product monitoring help the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment to determine the health risks of sweeteners more accurately.
Ms Gréa, for which products do you monitor the sugar content?
Because we cannot monitor all foods, we define specific product groups. For sugar, these include soft drinks, biscuits and other fine bakery products, sweetened curd and yoghurt products, breakfast cereals, cold sauces like ketchup, pasta sauces, and different kinds of muesli, sports, and fruit bars.
What changes are you seeing?
Overall, the sugar level is decreasing in many product groups. This is particularly evident for breakfast cereals. For products targeted at children, the average sugar level even reduced by 38.5 %. For bars, too, it went down by more than 30 %. In other product groups, such as sauces, we have not yet seen relevant changes. At the same time, we are seeing an increase of the fat levels in products like breakfast cereals and bars. This shows that in many processed foods with multiple ingredients individual components cannot simply be reduced or omitted.
What about sugar and sweeteners in soft drinks?
Between 2018 and 2024, the proportion of soft drinks containing only sugar decreased. Simultaneously, the share of products containing only sweeteners
Does that mean that sugar is being replaced with sweeteners?
That seems to be the case. Sweeteners are increasingly present in soft drinks, but so far this has mainly been in combination with sugar in order to preserve the sweet taste while also reducing calories. Nevertheless, most soft drinks still do not contain sweeteners.
How can sugar and sweeteners be identified in products?
While shopping, it’s worth taking a closer look. First, check the nutri-score for a general impression. Then examine the nutrition declaration for the sugar content. And finally, look at the list of ingredients to check for sweeteners. This is not straightforward, as sweeteners often carry names which are hard to decipher. Depending on the length of the list, you may need a little patience.
