New research from a UK campaign group has found only one in 20 yogurts aimed at children contain a low level of sugar.
Action on Sugar is calling on manufacturers to “stop misleading parents with child-friendly packaging and health claims on children’s yogurts”, and for a ban on such products as they are currently formulated and packaged.
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Its research found that more than half (63%) of all yogurts reviewed provide a third or more of a four- to six-year old’s maximum daily intake for added sugars per serve.
It said the worst offender was Nestlé Rolo Mix-in Toffee Yogurt, which contains 5.5 teaspoons of sugar per serve (22g), followed by the same company’s Nestlé Smarties Vanilla Yogurt, with four teaspoons of sugar per serve (16.5g), and General Mills‘ and Sodiaal’s Yoplait brand Petits Filous Greek Style Fruit Layers Strawberry & Peach & Raspberry (14.7g).
Action on Sugar, based at Queen Mary University of London, described progress to reformulate and reduce added sugar in yogurts with child-friendly packaging – such as cartoon animations, characters and designs – as “disappointingly sluggish”.
Its research also found that two-thirds (67%) of yogurts were either medium or high in saturated fat.
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By GlobalDataAction on Sugar said it would like to see government restrictions on using child-friendly packaging, and nutrition and health claims on such products.
It argues that the health claims on pack – such as the products being fortified by vitamins or calcium – create a distorted ‘health halo’.
Katharine Jenner, campaign director at Action on Sugar said: “Clever marketing techniques, such as advertising, promotions and packaging, are powerful tools to get children hooked on the sweet stuff from a young age and for life.
“Whilst the government’s obesity strategy is taking bold steps to tackle unhealthy advertising and promotions, it now needs to ensure food companies only use cartoons and health-halo statements on their healthier products, allowing parents to see more of what is good for their children.”
Just Food asked dairy industry trade association Dairy UK and Nestlé for their response to the research findings.
Dairy UK chief executive, Dr. Judith Bryans, said: “The yogurt and fromage frais sector in the UK has shown tremendous success in reformulating products to remove sugar, with retailer and manufacturer branded products achieving a 13% reduction in sugar content from 2015 to 2019, the second highest achievement of any category – compared with a total average reduction across all food categories of only 3%.
“PHE [Public Health England] itself recognised this, commenting only last year that ‘we’ve continued to see some progress in reducing sugar in a number of everyday food and drink products and this shows that success is possible through reformulation’.
“It is disappointing that the Action on Sugar survey seems to focus on total sugar without recognising that real dairy-based yogurts contain lactose, which is a natural intrinsic sugar in milk. Lactose is not a concern for public health, so reporting on total sugars without recognising lactose content gives a skewed picture to the public.
“Yogurts and fromage frais also contain highly valuable nutrients including calcium, high quality protein, B vitamins, phosphorus and iodine – helping consumers meet their daily needs easily.”
A Nestlé spokesperson said: “Lactalis Nestlé Chilled Dairy UK is fully committed to the Public Health England sugar reduction programme and have an on-going programme of innovation, reformulation and size reduction to remove calories and reduce sugar in our products. Indeed we have reduced sugar by more than 20% in our yogurt products since the baseline start of this programme in 2015 which is the equivalent of 4.8 tonnes of sugar removed.
“We have had a programme of reformulation in our children’s dairy products for many years. We have made changes to the products which are inherently challenging to reformulate to a sufficient degree without impacting taste and quality. In addition, any new products we develop will contain lower than average or no added sugar.”
