Waitrose pledges commitment to sugar reduction
Waitrose has announced plans to reduce sugar in its range of breakfast cereals during 2016 by stripping out more than 7.5 million calories or nearly two tonnes in the coming year.
The commitment will include a 15% sugar reduction in its cornflakes and a significant reduction in other popular own brand products such as honey and nut cornflakes and choco pops.
Waitrose said the changes to breakfast cereals will mean that it will have removed nearly 25 tonnes of sugar from its own label products by the end of this year across a variety of categories.
The work builds on the supermarket’s efforts to reduce sugar content over the last year. To date a total of seven tonnes of sugar have been removed from chilled juices, and 14.6 tonnes removed from own label yoghurts.
In addition, Waitrose has reduced the sugar content of undiluted juices, cordials and squashes by between 5% and 15% without the use of sweeteners, and by between 10% and 30% for fizzy drinks.
Waitrose nutrition manager, Moira Howie, said: “Breakfast is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle so Waitrose will continue to focus attention on cereals and other popular breakfast choices such as sweet pastries, smoothies, yoghurts and juices in the coming year, so we really can help customers make a healthier choice.
“We have already made significant progress in reducing sugar across everyday items like drinks and yoghurts. However, it is not simply a question of removing sugar we are also adding healthier ingredients which have nutritional benefits into our own label range, such as wholegrains, vegetables and fruit.”
