Reducing Sugar and Together Building Better Health for People Everywhere

Sugar is an essential part of our diet. However, excessive consumption can lead to diabetes, unhealthy weight gain, and the risk of tooth decay.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has established a standard for the appropriate amount of sugar intake at less than 5% of total calories consumed daily (for adults, five teaspoons or less of sugar per day). To put this into practice, however, we must start by reviewing the food and beverages we consume every day.
To solve these kinds of health issues, the Asahi Group is working proactively to develop products that will taste good even with less sugar and to expand its line of products with reduced sugar content.

In the past, each Asahi Group company has worked to develop its own reduced-sugar formulations for its products. However, to further accelerate those efforts, Asahi Quality & Innovations (AQI), a group company concerned with research that leads to mid- to long-term corporate development of the group, is now promoting various R&D efforts in collaboration with other group companies.

One specific initiative is a project between Asahi Beverages which oversees our soft drinks business in Australia, and AQI to develop a reduced-sugar formulation. Formulation can be considered as a recipe for the drink.

First, both companies worked to identify flavor elements to discover the specific elements that consumers seek in existing products and that makes the drink taste tasty to them.
Later, after reviewing multiple methods for reducing sugar, they attempted to develop a formulation that would provide the flavor they decided to create using the optimal method.
With the new formulation, they were successful in reducing the amount of sugar by 20%, without using high sensitivity sweeteners. They are now working to apply that same technology to other products.

*A sweetener that can be sweetened in small amounts because it is hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than sugar.

In addition to these development projects, AQI collaborates with group companies to realize soft drink products that maintain good taste even when sugar is reduced through various research efforts.
R&D

We are also working to expand our line of products with less sugar. As a member of the Australian Beverages Council, an industry body, Asahi Beverages have worked together with the goal of reducing the amount of sugar used in soft drink products by 20% by 2025 (compared to 2015 levels). The amount of sugar reduction achieved far exceeded the initial target, and the industry has revised the target upward to 25% and is working to develop products to further achieve the target. Asahi Beverages offers many sugar-free and reduced-sugar products under its Schweppes and Sunkist brands.

Efforts are also underway in the Southeast Asia region to reduce sugar content. Asahi Holdings Southeast Asia oversees the soft drinks business in that region. As part of their stated commitment to reduce the use of sugar to 5 grams or less per 100 ml in 70% or more of their Ready-to-Drink products, they have been working to expand their lineup of low-sugar soft drinks. As a result, they have successfully raised the ratio of products in the region with 5 grams or less of sugar per 100 ml to 87% in 2023.

Through the development of new technologies, we will continue to expand our lineup of non-sugar and low-sugar products in the soft drinks business, while widely appealing to our customers to refrain from consuming more than the standard amount of sugar through advertising and other means.
Going forward, we will continue to address issues related to health, support a healthy life for all people living together in this world, and contribute to ensuring their everyday lives shine.