Against the backdrop of the global "sugar reduction tide," the successive introduction of policies by various countries restricting advertisements for sugary foods targeting children and mandating added sugar labeling has injected a "catalyst for change" into the food industry. Faced with this series of "sugar reduction combinations," food enterprises have actively adjusted their strategies, striving to achieve sustainable development in the new policy environment and market demand, which has also greatly accelerated the innovation and development process of the entire food industry.
In terms of policies restricting advertisements for children's sugary foods, many countries have taken strong measures. The United Kingdom has recently become the focus again. According to multiple British media reports, starting from October next year, the UK will ban the broadcasting of junk food advertisements on TV before 9 pm. At the same time, online advertisements for high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar foods will be completely prohibited. This ban has been welcomed by many health advocates, who call it a "long-overdue restriction" on enterprises' behavior of "bombarding children" with advertisements for unhealthy foods and beverages. British media reported that the Conservative government had promised to implement the junk food TV advertisement ban many times before. Boris Johnson announced the implementation of this ban in 2021 when he was prime minister, but it was later postponed on the grounds of giving the relevant food industry more time to prepare. The previous Conservative government promised to implement the ban from January 2023, but one month before the implementation, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the ban would be postponed to 2025. It was not until the Labour government came to power that the current Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Gwynne, stated that confirming the scope and implementation date of the restrictions now provides clear information for enterprises, indicating that the Labour government is fulfilling its campaign promises, hoping to "immediately address" the widespread concern about children's overweight problems and "no longer delay."
In the United States, the new advertising law promulgated in 2008 forced McDonald's to restrict its package advertisements targeting children under 12 years old, and famous cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse were no longer allowed to appear in TV program advertisements. Norway and Sweden have imposed strict bans on advertisements for children's "junk food"; France requires relevant food advertisements to provide nutritional information; Ireland bans TV advertisements for fast food and candies and requires warning labels on packages; Japan imposes heavy fines on TV stations that broadcast "junk food" advertisements. These policies have greatly restricted food enterprises' marketing to children, prompting them to reexamine their product positioning and publicity strategies.
In terms of mandatory added sugar labeling policies, various countries are also continuing to advance. China released the new version of the "National Food Safety Standard—General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" in March 2025, which will be implemented on March 16, 2027, adding two mandatory labeling contents: sugar and saturated fat (acid). This measure aims to enable consumers to have a clearer understanding of the nutritional components of food and make healthier dietary choices. Singapore has implemented the Nutri-Grade labeling system for beverages since 2022, classifying beverages into 4 levels and 4 color labels according to sugar and saturated fat content. Grade C and D beverages need to have labels on the front of the package, and Grade D beverages are prohibited from advertising. Indonesia also plans to implement similar labeling requirements and restrict the content of sugar, salt, and fat in processed foods, classifying products into four levels: "A, B, C, D," with corresponding label display requirements for Grade C and D products.
Faced with these policy pressures, food enterprises have actively made changes in their R&D directions. Many enterprises have taken low-sugar formulas as the focus of R&Dand achieved sugar reduction goals through various technical means. Panpan Food is a typical example. In response to the requirements of the "Implementation Plan for the 'Weight Management Year' Activity" issued by the National Health Commission and other departments, which calls for accelerating the nutritional transformation of food processing and reasonably reducing the content of oil, salt, and sugar in processed foods, Panpan Food has launched the "Fresh—Leading Low GI Nutritional European Bread." By carefully selecting high-quality staple food raw materials and combining them with leading technologies in the industry, it has broken through the disadvantage of the rough taste of traditional low-GI bread and created products that are both delicious and healthy. At the same time, Panpan Food has also launched "low-GI biscuit products," laying out the "low-sugar and high-fiber" track of baked biscuits. While innovating products, Panpan Food has also promoted scenario-based marketing. Its products have entered Walmart and Yonghui supermarkets and built "weight management zones" with platforms such as JD Health and Tmall Supermarket, creating an all-scenario solution of "meal replacement + snacks + nutritional supplements" through online and offline linkage.
In addition to enterprises like Panpan Food making efforts on the product side, changes have also taken place in the raw material supply chain of the entire industry. Due to the increased demand for low-sugar raw materials by enterprises, more investment and development have been made in natural sweeteners and sweet ingredients, vegetable oils and microbial oils rich in unsaturated fats, etc., and the raw material and auxiliary material industry has ushered in an opportunity for reshuffling. Moreover, as more nutritional indicators need to be 公布 on the package, there are also development opportunities for the detection and analysis business of sugar and fatty acids, as well as the nutritional label compliance consulting business.
In terms of market pricing, enterprises are facing the problem of balancing costs and market acceptance. The R&D of low-sugar formulas has increased the costs of enterprises, including R&Dinvestment and the purchase cost of new raw materials, which may be passed on to product prices. However, consumers have different sensitivities to prices. Some consumers with strong health awareness are willing to pay higher prices for low-sugar and healthy foods, but price-sensitive consumers may turn to other products due to price increases. Enterprises need to comprehensively consider their own brand positioning, target customer groups, and market competition to formulate reasonable pricing strategies. Some enterprises reduce costs by optimizing production processes and expanding production scales to ease the pressure of price increases, and at the same time improve consumers' acceptance of prices by strengthening brand promotion and product differentiation.
Under the influence of various countries' "sugar reduction combinations," food enterprises are adapting to the new environment through active R&D innovation, supply chain optimization, and reasonable market pricing strategies. This not only promotes the development of the enterprises themselves but also brings new development opportunities to the entire food industry, prompting the industry to accelerate towards a healthier and more innovative direction.
