Why Some British Drinks Are Being Made Differently From Their US Counterparts - Tasting Table

"The U.S. version lists 73 grams of sugar per 20-ounce bottle. The U.K. version lists 4.5 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters. Crunch the numbers, and you'll find the American Fanta has nearly three times the sugar as its counterpart across the pond - 12.4 grams per 100 milliliters versus 4.5. The thing is, the British version doesn't taste like it's missing anything."

"A tax policy called the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) kicked in and started reshaping the country's beverage industry. The premise is simple: more sugar means more tax. Companies could've just absorbed the cost, but they didn't - they reformulated everything instead, swapping out chunks of sugar with artificial sweeteners like aspartame and stevia until the white sugar content dropped just below the tax threshold."

"According to the policy, if your product contains more than five grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, you get taxed. But nearly every major brand on the market crossed it, which meant nearly everyone was paying up. And the policy's been tightening. In November 2024, the U.K. government announced plans to drop the threshold to 4.5 grams per 100 milliliters come January 2028, plus they're expanding the levy to cover milk-based drinks - bottled milkshakes, ready-to-drink lattes, and yogurts."

British and American branded sodas with identical names can contain vastly different sugar amounts, with U.S. Fanta at 12.4 g/100 ml and U.K. Fanta at 4.5 g/100 ml. The U.K. Soft Drinks Industry Levy, introduced in 2018, taxes drinks above a sugar threshold, prompting manufacturers to reformulate products by substituting sugar with artificial sweeteners like aspartame and stevia. Reformulation reduced white sugar content while preserving flavor profiles. The levy initially taxed drinks over 5 g/100 ml; the government plans to lower the threshold to 4.5 g/100 ml in January 2028 and expand coverage to milk-based ready-to-drink beverages. Fresh-made café drinks and fruit juices remain exempt.

Read at Tasting Table