They warn in France about the percentage of sugar and sweeteners in foods

PARIS.—The French health agency warns that 77% of processed foods have some type of sugar or sweetenere, something that occurs even in salty products, and this despite the fact that it confirms that there have been “a significant decrease” in the percentage in which they appear.

In a study published yesterday, the National Food Safety Agency (Considered) reviews 54,000 products from the French market between 2008 and 2020 to establish a repertoire of those that contain these types of components whose consumption should be reduced to prevent obesity or diabetes.

Its result is that 77% of products with at least one sugary ingredient or sugary taste vectorhow can it be sucrose, sugar, glucose or fructose syrup, aspartame, dextrose, molasses syrup or fruit juice concentrate.

Sucrose, the equivalent of table sugar, is the most common, since it is present in 58% of foods. Furthermore, 59% use a combination of several of these ingredients.

Anses recognizes that in the last ten years there has been “a significant decrease” in the percentage of foods processed with sugars, and this has occurred especially in salty products.

It has been due in part to changes that industrialists have made in the formulations to favor “very common ingredients such as white sugar or sucrose, or those perceived as more ‘natural’, such as fruit juices.” It has been done to the detriment of sugar syrups or synthetic sweeteners.

Julie Gauvreau-Béziat, One of those responsible for the report points out that they have not examined the quantities of sugary ingredients because they are not normally indicated on the labels, which is what has been scrutinized.

That is to say, Gauvreau-Béziat emphasizes, “the results do not necessarily show a decrease in the total amount of sugars in the products” since “the elimination of one sugary ingredient can go hand in hand with the revision of the proportion of the others.” ”.

Second study of sweeteners

In parallel, Anses releases another sectoral study on the evolution of the supply and nutritional quality, especially the amount of sugars, of non-alcoholic soft drinks between 2010, 2013 and 2019, with more than 4,500 references analyzed.

On pThe main conclusion is that the amount of sugars has decreased between 2013 and 2019, a trend that had already been observed since 2013 and that has accelerated since that same year.

The authors of the work consider that this may result from the collective agreement between the main industrial sector and public authorities to reduce the amount of sugars by 5%.

It must also be remembered that Since 2012 in France there has been a tax on drinks that have added sugars and/or sweeteners and since 2018 that rate is proportional to the amount of sugars.

The Anses emphasizes that a high consumption of sugars means a contribution of energy greater than necessary and in the long term this leads to overweight and even obesity, which means a greater risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or certain cancers.

In this regard, remember that in 2016 it had calculated that around 20% of adults and 25% of adolescents between 13 and 17 years old exceeded 100 grams of sugars per day, which is the threshold that it recommends not exceeding.

In 2019 I had set 60 grams a day the limit that children between 4 and 7 years old should not exceed, and warned that 75% did not comply with that rule. For children aged 8 to 12, 60% were above the threshold set at 75 grams per day.