Overuse of Non-caloric Sweeteners in Foods and Beverages in Chile: A Threat to Consumers' Free Choice?

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity among Chilean adults and children is one of the highest worldwide. To fight the constant increase of non-communicable diseases and the growing sales of sugar-sweetened beverages, the Chilean government recently enacted a new Law of Food Labeling and Advertising imposing the application of front-of-package warning labels in foodstuffs whose composition exceeds limits for critical nutrients including sugar. Accordingly, food companies have been reformulating their products, incorporating non-caloric sweeteners (NCSs) in partial or total replacement of sucrose. The number of NCS-containing foods and beverages, therefore, has been increasing in the last years. This study aims to identify the NCS-containing products from different food/beverage categories currently available on the Chilean market. Nineteen supermarkets and 13 food web pages were visited by trained dietitians to carry out a systematic search of ingredient information from the different food categories. Overall, 1,489 products were analyzed, of which 815 (55.5%) contained at least one NCS, being this proportion particularly high, compared to other countries. 67.1% of the dairy products, 31.5% of the cereal products, 49% of the processed fruits, 74.3% of the non-alcoholic beverages, and 46.2% of sweets and other desserts contained NCS. Considering the food categories more specifically oriented to children, NCSs were present in 98.8% of powder juices, 98.3% of the flavored milks, 91.2% of jellies, and 79% of the dairy desserts. Sucralose and steviol glycosides were the most widely used NCSs, these sweeteners being present, alone or mixed with other, in 73.5 and 39.7% of the NCS-containing products, respectively, while the use of saccharin and cyclamate was low. In addition, 80 tabletop NCSs were available in the local market, 91.2% of them being sucralose and steviol glycosides (alone or combined). The high number of food products containing steviol glycosides makes very plausible that the daily consumption of this NCS in the pediatric populations could exceed its acceptable daily intake (ADI). The fact that there are no NCS-free foods alternatives for certain food categories, especially for children, is worrying.

Trends in the Use of Low and No-Calorie Sweeteners in Non-Alcoholic Beverages in Slovenia

“…Most beverages with added LNCS contained more than one LNCS, and only sucralose and steviol glycosides were used as sole sweetener. A similar finding was presented in the study from Chile [ 15 ]. One of the main reasons for this could be the taste of intensive sweeteners, which tend to have metallic or bitter after taste.…”

“…This indicates a slight, but non-significant ( p = 0.12) increase in the use of LNCS, over the course of two years. Comparison of our results with similar studies showed that the use of LNCS in non-alcoholic beverages in Slovenia was relatively low when compared to Latin America (>40%) [ 15 ], USA (23.9%) [ 26 ], or Spain (39.2%) [ 10 ]. A lower prevalence of LNCS use in non-alcoholic beverages has been reported only for New Zealand (8.7%) and Australia (2.3%) [ 26 ].…”

“…The growth of these diseases and recommendations to reduce sugar intake are increasing the number of potential consumers. Therefore, it is not surprising that both the supply of such products and the consumption of LNCS in the general population are also growing in some countries [ 15 ].…”

Use of advertising strategies to target children in sugar‐sweetened beverages packaging in Mexico and the nutritional quality of those beverages

“…implementation, a decrease in the content of nutrients of concern was observed, but the use of other sweeteners increased. 48 According to the Chilean criteria proposed, most of the SSBs had excessive sugar;…”

The ethics of excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages

“…Both approaches should reduce obesity and risk for type 2 diabetes in adults, but uncertainties around long-term health consequences of NNS for children have prompted concerns about potential overuse of NNS in reformulation. [39] It should be noted though that neither SSBs nor beverages containing NNS are recommended for children. [40,41]…”