Children's Beverages See Sugar Reduction... Snacks Show Increased Sugar and Sodium Content

Consumer Agency Investigates Changes in Processed Food Content Since 2012

Analysis of Sugar Content Changes.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] The average sugar content in processed foods has increased, while sodium content has decreased. Among processed foods, the sugar content in children's beverages has decreased, but both sugar and sodium increased in snacks.

On the 10th, the Korea Consumer Agency released the results of a survey on changes in sodium and sugar content as of April this year, targeting products that could be tracked based on the Food Quality Survey conducted annually since 2012 by selecting items each year.

Sugar content decreased in 35 out of 111 products (32%). The sugar content increased in 30 products (27%), and 26 products showed no change. The rest had negligible content and were excluded from comparison. The overall average sugar content increased by 1.3%. In children's beverages, sugar content decreased in 5 out of 7 products (71%) compared to the 2012 survey.

In snacks (compared to the 2015 survey), sugar content increased in 10 out of 20 products, and no products showed a decrease. Franchise chicken (2016) saw sugar content decrease by an average of 65% in 2 products, but increase by an average of 101% in another 2 products, resulting in an overall increase. Orange juice (2014) and soy milk (2015) each showed an average sugar content reduction of 24% and 21% respectively across 6 products.

Analysis of Sodium Content Changes.

Sodium content decreased in 60 out of 122 products surveyed, accounting for 49%. Sixteen products (13%) showed no change, and 46 products (38%) showed an increase. The overall average sodium content decreased by 1.8%. In children's cheese (2013), sodium content decreased in 12 out of 13 products. Conversely, all 9 instant porridge products (2017) surveyed showed an increase in sodium content.

In snacks, sodium content decreased by an average of 13% in 9 products, but increased by an average of 39% in 11 other products, resulting in an overall increase in sodium content. Franchise chicken saw an average sodium content decrease of 15% across 10 products.

When investigating the implementation performance of businesses that submitted sugar and sodium reduction plans for the relevant items during the Food Quality Survey, only 27 out of 51 products (53%) achieved reduction. Among 20 products that submitted sugar reduction plans, 14 (70%) reduced sugar, while only 13 out of 31 products (42%) reduced sodium.

The Consumer Agency plans to continue monitoring product groups where sugar and sodium have increased or reduction efforts are insufficient, to encourage further reduction. They also plan to recommend operating dedicated sales zones that separately collect sugar- and sodium-reduced products for large-scale retailers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.