FDA nutrition facts label changes: what about the beverage industry?

As consumers become more label-conscious and regulations surrounding clear-cut nutrition facts labels stricter, the beverage industry is working hard to bring healthier and tastier products to market. Recent FDA nutrition facts label changes affect beverages in various ways, from calorie levels to taste and even texture.

Removing sugar to reduce calories

A 2015 study by Tate & Lyle found no less than 54 percent of consumers in the US actively try to consume less sugar. Unsurprisingly, one of the first things most consumers check when considering buying a particular beverage is the recently updated “added sugars” item on the nutrition facts label. Hence, many beverage manufacturers opt to reduce or replace sugars with low-calorie and low-sugar or sugar-free alternatives. While simple enough, doing so requires taking into account an additional consideration: how is removing sugars from a beverage going to affect its taste?

Taste remains an important factor

While consumers are growing more health-conscious, taste remains an important factor in their purchasing decisions. To avoid the bitter aftertaste of some artificial sweeteners including stevia, some beverage manufacturers choose to combine them with allulose, a natural low-calorie sugar, to achieve a similar sweetness level. Allulose is known to reduce the amount of artificial sweetener needed up to 40 percent.

The texture of sucrose

Another factor not to be underestimated when reducing a beverage’s sugar levels is texture. Low-fat dairy drinks, for instance, require removing both sugars and fat, which unavoidably changes the drink’s texture. Again, it’s allulose to the rescue. While reducing calories and sugar levels, allulose also delivers the texture of sucrose.

Keeping up with FDA nutrition facts label changes

Are your beverage labels ready for 2018? Keeping up with the latest nutrition facts label changes so that your beverage label is exactly as the FDA prescribes can be challenging, but that’s where Esko’s Dynamic Content plugin comes in. It enables you to quickly replace your nutrition facts labels with 2018 FDA compliant tables, all with the click of a button. Inspired by Beverage Industry