The Hong Kong Consumer Council previously said that the 30 bottled green tea test, found that some bottled green tea sugar content of up to 9.2%, the calorie content is higher than a can (355 ml) of cola, in this regard, the morning reporter yesterday interviewed the relevant experts in food nutrition in Shanghai, the experts said that this hidden sugar labeling practice is indeed prone to mislead consumers with slimming needs, shopping for When shopping for tea drinks, groups with special needs should pay attention to the label.
Shanghai Food and Drug Administration told the Morning Post that in the inspection of tea drinks on the market, the relevant departments are not currently carrying out special monitoring of sugar content. The country is also currently no relevant very specific and clear standards, but the Ministry of Health is embarking on the development of standards for sugar content in beverages.
Drinking green tea for up to 9 kilograms a year
It has been reported that the Hong Kong Consumer Council tested 30 samples of bottled green tea sold in Hong Kong and found that most of the bottled green tea had added sugar. Consumers are reminded that products claiming to be "sugar-free", "low-sugar" and "less sweet" do not necessarily contain less sugar than samples without similar claims.
A registered dietitian in Hong Kong pointed out that if you drink a bottle of green tea containing as much as 9.2% sugar, it is equivalent to eating 9 teaspoons of granulated sugar, and if you drink an extra bottle of green tea every day after your body has consumed enough calories, you can gain up to 9 kilograms of fat in a year.
Labeling and actual inconsistency will be punished
In this regard, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, nutrition and food safety experts, Professor Chen Junshi said, obesity and whether with a person's daily diet and exercise, and can not be based on occasional consumption of beverages containing sugar to determine whether or not to be sure to gain weight. Such speculation is also not credible. Consumers with a need for slimming can just pay special attention to the label when shopping for tea drinks.
When investigating in several supermarkets, salespeople told the Morning Post that there has been a marked increase in the variety of sugar-free drinks this year. In the current Shanghai market, Master Kong and unified have sugar-free tea drinks. Farmer's Tea Longjing green tea low-sugar drinks are also labeled with total sugar less than or equal to 4.7 grams. Experts said that such labeling is also a responsible performance of enterprises, but if the ingredients in the labeling found in the inspection and the actual detection of ingredients do not match, we have to be punished according to the product does not meet the corporate standards.
The Chinese Nutrition Society honorary director, honorary chairman of the Shanghai Nutrition Society Zhao Fa and told the Morning Post reporter, tea drinks containing excessive sugar will indeed make people fat, and the amount of sugar is too much to see whether the drinks are labeled.
A sugar-free beverage marketer said the degree of consumer recognition of sugar-free beverages in the Chinese market is relatively low compared to sugar-sweetened beverages, but the groups that need to buy sugar-free beverages are with a very clear purpose. For example, slimming people or diabetics. Domestic manufacturers are now beginning to focus on the sugar-free beverage market, "never obviously sugar-free is not labeled".