This article is for all the people who love numbers and sugar reduction!

From our 2021 sales data, 35% of total sugar sales came from sugary drinks (18% coming from soft drink, 9.5% from cordials and 7.1% from fruit juice/drink).

To support our customers to drink less sugar, the ALPA Board agreed to pilot a ‘pack size reduction’ strategy on the highest selling sugary drinks. This strategy will complement the suite of sugar reduction policies already in place across our stores. 

The pilot has kicked off in Milingimbi, Ramingining, Minjilang and Gapuwiyak.
So, which sugary drinks are shrinking?

The top selling soft drink, 1.25 litre cola (contains 30 teaspoons of sugar) will be replaced with a 1 litre cola (contains 26.5 teaspoons of sugar). This might not seem like a big reduction, but it equates to almost 2.5 tonnes less sugar per year going into the four trial communities (based on 1.25L cola quantities sold in 2021).

The next sugary drinks to shrink in size are cordials. Cordial sales have slowly increased over the years. There is a misconception that cordials do not have a lot of sugar in them because you add water. But a 2 litre cordial contains 140 teaspoons of sugar. The 2 litre cordials will be removed, only 1 litre cordials will be available in these trial stores. 1 litre cordials contain 54-80 teaspoons of sugar per bottle. This change would result in 6.7 tonnes less sugar per year going into the four trial communities (based on cordial quantities sold in 2021).