Juice and juice drinks, a major part of any summer drinks portfolio, have been busy developing lower-sugar products
Healthy eating and drinking is a hot topic in the media and sugar is often on the negative end of the reporting.
But, according to juice drink manufacturer Sunmagic, three out of four consumers believe that fruit juices can be part of a healthy diet and 44% say they are not concerned about their naturally occurring sugar content.
Sunmagic says that recent government findings highlighted that 150ml of juice is perfectly safe and reaffirmed why fruit juice is included in the five-a-day guidelines.
But there is still a growing demand for lower-sugar drinks.
Brand manager Razin Ali said: “Many soft drinks companies have engaged with the more health-conscious consumers by launching a range of lower-sugar products.
“For example we launched Sunmagic Cherry & Apple Juice Drink, to respond to a gap in the market for such a flavour. Cherry products have been around for a long time, however we believe we are the first to have brought a cherry and apple product to market in a 500ml format.”
Ali suggested that parents are increasingly looking for reduced sugar drinks for their children. “We tapped into this with the launch of our three-strong range of colour-coded kids’ juice drinks,” he said.
“The new drinks are the first of their kind to be deemed healthy or school-compliant by new government regulations.”
Looking ahead he reckons that the future looks positive for juice.
“The total value of the fruit juice, juice drinks and smoothie market is expected to rise by 2% over the next five years to reach £4.8bn in 2019.”
