‘Dangerous’ sugar levels in main street cafe hot drinks – charity

There are “shocking” amounts of sugar found in a number of hot drinks regularly bought on Britain’s high streets, a campaign group has said.

Action on Sugar said that there is “dangerously” high sugar content in some flavoured coffees and other hot drinks.

The charity performed analysis on 131 hot flavoured drinks and found that 98 per cent of the drinks tested would receive a red nutritional value label for high sugar content.

A third of the hot drinks tested contain the same amount or more sugar than Coca Cola – which contains nine teaspoons of sugar per can, a spokesman said.

The drinks assessed included flavoured coffees including mochas and lattes, hot fruit drinks and hot chocolates among others which are widely bought from some of the UK’s best known coffee shops and fast food chains.

The drink that was found to have the highest sugar content was Starbucks’ venti Grape with Chai, Orange and Cinnamon Hot Mulled Fruit, which had a total of 25 teaspoons of sugar per serving, said the campaign group.

Costa’s massimo eat-in Chai Latte was found to contain 20 teaspoons of sugar while Starbucks’ venti White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream was found to have 18, a spokesman added.

KFC’s mocha and Starbucks’ Signature Hot Chocolate both had 15 teaspoons of sugar per serving while Caffe Nero’s drink-in Caramelatte had 13, said Action on Sugar.

Obesity rates

“This is yet again another example of scandalous amount of sugar added to our food and drink. No wonder we have the highest rates of obesity in Europe,” said Prof Graham MacGregor, chairman of Action on Sugar.

“David Cameron now has all the evidence to make the UK the first country in the world to stop the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic.”

Action on Sugar researcher Kawther Hashem added: “These hot flavoured drinks should be an occasional treat, not an ‘everyday’ drink. They are laden with an unbelievable amount of sugar and calories and are often accompanied by a high sugar and fat snack.

“Our advice to consumers is to have a plain hot drink or ask for your drink to contain a minimal amount of syrup, preferably sugar free, in the smallest serving size available.”

Starbucks has responded. “Earlier this year we committed to reduce added sugar in our indulgent drinks by 25 per cent by the end of 2020,” a spokeswoman said.

“We also offer a wide variety of lighter options, sugar-free syrups and sugar-free natural sweetener and we display all nutritional information in-store and online.”

Across the main street, Costa also had something to say. “Costa takes the nutritional balance of our food and drink very seriously and we have already taken significant steps to reduce the sugar content of our ranges,” said Kerry Parkin, head of communications at Costa.

“We intend to continue improving the balance of our product offerings while maintaining the high quality and great taste our customers expect. This April we will be setting salt and sugar reduction targets for 2020.”

PA