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?????????? ??????????: New Nutri-Grade labels in 2023 for your Beverages

Here's another tick in the battle against excessive sugar as we welcome the new year; from 30 Dec 2022, the Ministry of Health (Singapore) will introduce mandatory nutrition labels (Nutri-Grade) for our favourite beverages.

How Nutri-Grade Works

To maximize public health impact and help reduce chronic diseases including the risk of diabetes in Singapore, Nutri-Grade marks will be required on all prepacked beverages. Nutri-Grade will be further extended to freshly prepared beverages in late 2023.

Let's face it, nutritional tables in small print are a pain to read ?? It’s another cognitive load to add to time-poor consumers looking to buy their food or beverage items to go.

Nutri-Grade is a nutritional labelling system printed on the front of beverage packaging. With the aid of the traffic light colour-coded letter scale (A-D), consumers will see at a glance ?????????? ?????? ?????????????????? ???????? content of their beverage. Its a win for enabling more transparent purchasing decisions.

5 Things You’ll Want to Know about Nutri-Grade

(1) It covers beverages, for now ??- These include soft drinks, juices, milk, & 3-in-1 instant beverages. ???????? or ?????? and our beloved #bubbletea will come into the fold in time.

(2) It helps you make healthier purchasing decisions ? - High sugar intake is linked to increased risk of obesity and diabetes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has further stated that "nutritionally, people do not need any sugar in their diet"

(3) It represents sugar & fat content in a uniform reference amount ?? - A personal pet peeve is the challenge of comparing portions and amounts on labels. Nutri-Grade will enable consumers to compare different beverage products objectively on the basis of a uniform reference amount (100ml).

(4) If your favorite beverage 'fails' (Grade D), product advertising is prohibited ??- Advertisements of beverages graded 'D', are prohibited across media platforms (e.g. broadcast, print, out-of-home, on-ground, online).

(5) It is not a new scheme - The system was recommended by the WHO. It’s been used by EU countries (France, Spain, Germany to name a few) for a number of years now, under the Nutri-Score scheme (with 5 labels instead of 4)

How can you keep this going?

With any new change, creating awareness is key. Keeping chronic diseases or #obesity in check requires sustained change. Here’s my take on how to keep the momentum.

1. Keep it visible - ?? Continue to make the labels visually simple. You might already have noticed these labels on your beverages today as producers proactively update their packaging.
2. Keep it simple ??- There are already several beverage visuals on your drink. Coupled with the Nutri-Grade label, consumers also have to contend with the Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) –the ‘Singapore’ pyramid by the Health Promotion Board. How about having one uniform consistent reference in the longer-term HPB?
3. Sustain it ?? - Stay the course. Nutri-Grade should be made pervasive (perhaps creating awareness earlier in schools and canteens?)

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