Warning statements on soft drinks is "absurd", Bev Council says

Recent calls for soft drink labels to carry warning statements have been criticised by the Australian Beverages Council. Geoff Parker, CEO of the council, has called a recent Columbia University study linking soft drink consumption with behavioural problems “weak” and said it did not prove cause and effect.

“Calls for warning statements regarding the amount of sugar soft drinks contain are not only absurd but lack any credible evidence to support them,” Parker said. “In accordance with Australian food laws, all beverages clearly state on the back label exactly how much sugar each drink contains.

“In addition to meeting these mandatory requirements, members of the Australian Beverages Council also voluntarily put the amount of kilojoules (energy) the products contain on the front-of-pack label. The industry would strongly argue this provides consumers with more than enough information to make an informed choice.”

According to Parker, the study did not account for other important considerations and the authors themselves noted that the study “is not able to identify the nature of the association between soft drinks and behavioural problems”.

“It is irresponsible for any expert to be suggesting such extreme recommendations as warning statements based off this very weak study,” Parker said. “What the evidence is telling us is that regular kilojoule soft drink consumption is declining, with just 1.6% of the average kid’s dietary kilojoules in 2007 coming from soft drinks compared to 3.3% in 1995.

“Today, three of the top four selling soft drinks in Australia are low/no kilojoules, and consumers have more choice than ever to meet their hydration and lifestyle needs. Between 1994 and 2007 regular soft drink sales decreased by 10% while low-/no-kilojoule soft drinks sales doubled.”

In addition, Parker said, industry has also reformulated many products to include low-/no-kilojoule options, introduced smaller pack sizes, eliminated marketing to children under 12 years of age and stopped regular soft drink sales from primary schools.