2024-03-19 12:06:28
Fewer types of sugars and sweeteners on our plates? Since the 2010s, sweetening ingredients, such as sucrose and aspartame, are less numerous in processed foods sold in France, indicates a study by the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) this Tuesday, March 19. In its report, the health authority notes “a decline in the use of sweetening ingredients over the last ten years, particularly sugar syrups and sweeteners”.
From 2008 to 2020, the agency has combed through the composition of more than 50,000 processed foods, sweet and savory. Pizzas, ready meals or even cereals which generally contain sugar. ANSES assessed the frequency with which sweetening ingredients were found in their recipes.
77% of foods contain a sweetening ingredient
The agency concludes that in 2020, 77% of processed foods, including in the savory section, still contained at least one sweetening ingredient, but that there were fewer of different types than in previous years. “This trend is partly linked to reformulations of products by manufacturers (…). Sugar syrups or synthetic sweeteners are much less used”details ANSES.
The health authority, however, takes a grain of salt and warns that this should not be concluded as a general drop in the sugar content of foods. The study only examines the nature and frequency of ingredients usednot the quantities used, “rarely indicated on packaging”.
Amounts of sugar rarely indicated
For example, in the past, a pizza sold in supermarkets might contain white sugar and sweeteners. Today, the recipe has been modified and the pizza now only contains white sugar. So there remains only one sweetening ingredient but its quantity is not necessarily lower.
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