A 20 per cent reduction in calories consumed from beverages by 2025 will require effort

OTTAWA, Oct. 24, 2016 /CNW/ - The goal of reducing caloric intake by 20 per cent by 2025 will require effort by the beverage industry before it can be achieved. Despite recent declines in daily calories from non-alcoholic and non-dairy beverages, a baseline report conducted by The Conference Board of Canada to track the Canadian Beverage Association's Balance Calories Initiative progress finds that consumer trends alone will only accomplish 10.5 per cent of the desired target.

"Ensuring that Canadians attain a healthy weight will require a multi-sector approach including voluntary industry initiatives such as the Balance Calorie Initiative," said Michael Bloom, Vice-President, Industry and Business Strategy. "Although only a small and declining portion of daily calories consumed by Canadians is from refreshments beverages, the percentage of Canadian adults who are overweight continues to rise."

The Canadian Beverage Association has set a goal to reduce Canadians' liquid refreshment beverages (LRB) daily calorie consumption by 20 per cent between 2015 and 2025.

Highlights

• The Canadian Beverage Association has set a goal to reduce Canadians' liquid refreshment beverages (LRB) daily per capita consumption by 20 per cent between 2015 and 2025.
• The daily per capita calories consumed through refreshment beverages for Canada in 2014 was 142.5 calories.
• There has already been a 20 per cent reduction in LRB calorie consumption in Canada since 2004.
• The 20 per cent calorie reduction goals for 2025 cannot be achieved through projected trends alone.

Historically, there has been a clear trend toward lower refreshment beverages daily caloric consumption per capita in Canada. In fact, a 20 per cent consumption reduction from 2004 to 2014 was achieved with the introduction of lower calorie beverage options. In 2014, Canadians consumed an average 142.5 calories a day from beverages such as bottled water, soft drink, juice and energy drinks daily.

To achieve the 20 per cent reduction target by 2025, Canadian consumers would need to consume 114 calories a day from refreshment beverages. The Conference Board report finds that this target can only be achieved through greater efforts from the industry to reduce the calories in refreshment beverages. The liquid refreshment beverage industry can continue to influence consumer choice in a number of ways such as reducing volumes and/or introducing more low calorie beverage products to the market.

This, along with topics on how to leverage new opportunities to enhance the food sector's performance will be discussed at the 5th Annual Food and Drink Summit 2016, November 28 and 29 in Toronto.

Canadian Beverage Association Balance Calories Initiative Baseline Report has been prepared by The Conference Board of Canada's Centre for Food in Canada for the Canadian Beverage Association. The Conference Board is charged with tracking the progress of the Balance Calories Initiative as an independent third party verifier.

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SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

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