As eating and drinking less sugar has become increasingly important to New Zealanders, Coca-Cola in New Zealand has taken action to reduce sugar in its recipes, offering more ‘no’ and ‘low’ sugar options and smaller pack sizes, making it even easier and quicker for consumers to compare products and make informed choices.
Chris Litchfield, Managing Director NZ and Pacific, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand, says:
“The move to the star icon is an example of how seriously we take our responsibility to provide meaningful information to consumers. We have supported the New Zealand government’s HSR initiative since it was established in 2014, adding the HSR energy icon on packs across our portfolio of products.”
The Health Star Rating is a voluntary front-of-pack labelling system adopted by New Zealand and Australia in 2014 for packaged food and beverages, and is administered by The Ministry for Primary Industries. The system rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged food and drink and assigns a rating from ½ a star to 5 stars. This provides a quick and easy way to compare packaged products within the same food or beverage category.
One of Coca-Cola in New Zealand’s first products to carry the star icon is Coca-Cola Classic with its ½ star rating. The star icon will be applied to all products over time, whether that’s Schweppes Ginger beer (½ star) or Kiwi Blue water (5 stars).
As well as the switch to stars on its packaging, Coca-Cola in New Zealand is committed to reducing the amount of sugar in its products. In fact, since 2015, Coca-Cola in New Zealand has reduced sugar across its portfolio of drinks in New Zealand by 13% (1), exceeding the sugar reduction target set for 2020 (2). It has also increased the availability of its smaller packs, with 97% of major retailers now selling pack sizes 300mL or under (3).
*Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand
1 Based on weighted average sugar content (g per 100 mL) – this calculation accounts for the relative volume sold of each product. Reduction measured from 01 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2021. Across Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand’s non-alcoholic ready-to-drink range.
2 Sugar reduction % is based from 2015. Target was reached in May 2021 due to COVID-19 impact.
3 Small packs are non-alcoholic 300mL or under.