In the face of the spreading obesity epidemic in Australia, the continent’s leading beverage giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi have apparently pledged to reduce the sugar content in their soft drinks by almost 20% by 2025. Reportedly a review of the pledge would be evaluated by the Australian Beverage Council in a two-step process- first a 10% reduction in 2020 and the subsequent reduction by 2025.

The initiative has been criticized as an attempt by the big shots to skive off the sugar tax that has been imposed by the Australian Government to deter the over-consumption of sugary products. However, according to the CEO of Australian Beverage Council, Mr. Geoff Parker, this type of self-regulatory commitment by an industry as a whole is probably the first of its kind in Australia. 

The pledge does not necessarily imply that Australian beverage manufacturers would curtail the amount of sugar in their drinks, rather they are planning to increase the market share from low-sugar alternatives. In fact Coca-Cola Amatil, has already grown its portfolio in no-sugar or low-sugar drinks such as coffee and bottled water. For the record, quite influenced by the shifting consumer preference from sugary soft drinks to non-sugary beverages, the company’s sales of conventional fizzy drinks has fallen by almost 8.1% over the past two fiscal years. Similarly any increase in the volume of no-sugar and low sugar drinks sales would be counted under the pledge, as per the Australian Beverage Council.

For the uninitiated, a similar line of announcement had been made by U.S. beverage makers in the year 2014, committing to reduce the amount of beverage calories consumed per day by Americans by 20% by 2025. Akin to the same, these Australian beverage companies also seem to be focusing on reducing the amount of sugar content in every 100 ml of the beverage, rather than an absolute elimination of sugar from their production.