43 different names for sugar!

CHOICE is calling for changes to food labelling laws to assist consumers to identify added sugars in foods.

The consumer group has found that there are 43 different names food companies use to describe added sugars.

“Some added sugars are easy to identify such as brown sugar and caster sugar, but others like agave nectar, high-fructose corn syrup, rapadura and molasses are not,” said CHOICE spokesperson Tom Godfrey.

“On food labels, the nutritional panel doesn’t differentiate between added sugar content and sugars that naturally occur in the product. So the only way for you to find out is by trying to identify these 40+ different names in the ingredients list,” he added.

The World Health Organisation recommends limiting the intake of ‘free’ or added sugars to no more than 10% of a person’s total energy intake, in order to reduce the risk of health issues such as obesity and tooth decay.

CHOICE is lobbying the government to adopt one of the key recommendations from the 2011 food labelling review: that where sugars are added as separate ingredients in a food, the term “added sugars” be used in the ingredient list as the generic term, followed by a bracketed list with further details. For example: added sugars (fructose, glucose syrup, honey).