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ALDI CUTS 40 TONNES OF SUGAR FROM IT’S CHILDREN’S CEREAL RANGE

Aldi Ireland has today announced that it has substantially reduced the sugar content of its children’s breakfast cereals range.

As a result, 40 tonnes of sugar has been removed from Aldi’s stores annually across children’s breakfast cereals products, enough to fill 350 shopping trollies.

The move is part of Aldi’s ongoing programme to meet a 20% sugar reduction target across products in ten key grocery categories.

Aldi’s own-label children’s breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, ice cream, yoghurt, chocolate, sweets, desserts, sweet spreads and sauces, and breakfast items including pastries and pancakes, are all being targeted as part of the initiative.

Aldi has been working with its suppliers for the past 24 months to introduce the changes. Significant progress has been made, with the 20% target surpassed across many products already

For example, sugar in Aldi’s Crisp Rice cereal has been reduced by 33%, Golden Puffs now contain 25% less sugar and the sugar content of Aldi’s Craze cereal has been reduced by 22%.

In addition, Chocolate Pillows now has 20% less sugar while Multi Grain Hoops has seen its sugar content reduced by 11%.

Added to this, reductions in sugar content mean a further 18 tonnes has been removed annually from Aldi’s own-label children’s yoghurt range. In particular, Fromage Frais strawberry yoghurt now contains 23% less sugar.

Commenting, Aldi’s Group Buying Director John Curtin said: “Reducing sugar in our own-label products is something that we are committed to achieving in partnership with our suppliers. This is especially relevant for those with young families who shop with us. It is all part of business strategy to support healthier choices and lifestyles for our customers, and it is undertaken in direct response to customer demand for initiatives that make it easy, affordable and accessible for people to make more informed choices.”

The move towards a 20% reduction in sugar is the latest step in a series of initiatives as Aldi moves to promote healthy and active lifestyles for customers and young people. In 2018, Aldi announced it was introducing an age restriction across all Irish and UK stores on the sale of energy drinks to under-16s. Following the launch of this initiative, customers now have to prove their age when buying energy drinks containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre.

Aldi also announced in 2018 that it would not be raising prices of its own-label soft drinks to coincide with the sugar tax that year. The tax meant soft drinks with more than 5g of sugar per 100ml would become more expensive, but Aldi worked with suppliers to reduce sugar levels across all its 19 own-label soft drinks, meaning 140,000kgs of sugar were removed from stores annually and prices of soft drinks remained the same.