LIVINGLIVING
starch as well as sugar. It's the sugars that
go straight into your blood stream and
cause a blood glucose spike, releasing
insulin [in non-diabetics]. Successful work
has been done on reducing salt and fat in
diets, but it's lead to an increase in added
sugars. If we can find systems that make
it easier to identify low free sugars, that
would be a step in the right direction."
Wise heads
Someone who has recently taken up the
fight for better food labeling, specifically
to do with sugar, is Rend Platings, the
founder of Sugarwise. Sugarwise is the
The Sugarwise marque, and its creator, Rend Platings and
some products showing the certification.
international authority for sugar claims,
with more than 400 products certified,
shipping in over 65 countries. The
Sugarwise marque is the trusted and
recognised sign guaranteeing that the
sugar claims made on packaging have
been independently verified, and that
the product is low in any of the sugars
or sweeteners people need to limit,
referencing World Health Organisation
(WHO) guidelines.
As the only international certification
body for sugar claims, Sugarwise
assesses the following claims: sugar
free, low sugar, no added sugar, reduced
sugar, low calorie and calorie free. Along
with being able to carry a sugars related
claim, all certified products must be low in
free sugars. This means they must have
no more than 5g of free sugars in 100g if
a food, and no more than 2.5g in 100ml
of free sugars if a beverage.
The Sugarwise campaign was started
by Platings at the start of 2016, after
becoming a mother for the first time and
looking at labels when searching for lowersugar foods for her child. At that point
there was hardly any media attention on
sugar. She recalls, "In fact, back then it
was difficult to persuade people to take
Education has limited value if
everything sold still has a lot of
sugar in it. The food industry
has to be held to account. -
Rend Platings, Sugarwise
"