Healthier Choices: Healthy children snacking in India, sugar reduction pledges in Australia, dairy for health in China and more feature in our round-up

Keeping kids keen: Growth in India’s children’s snacking market driven by convenience, health and safety​

Convenience for parents and guaranteed food safety for children are the primary drivers of growth for the kids’ snacking market in India today, with the category evolving to become an increasingly important dietary occasion in the country.

Globally, the snacking sector benefitted from habits developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns.

In India, the children’s snacking market in particular has been seeing significant growth, with parents increasingly seeing children-targeted snacks as a convenient yet important part of their diets – with the caveat that no compromise is made on the health, nutrition and food safety aspects.

‘No need for regressive taxes’: Major Australian beverage brands make further sugar reduction pledges​

Major Australian beverage firms including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have increased their sugar reduction commitments for non-alcoholic beverage products in a further push to demonstrate the efficacy of industry-led initiatives over taxation.

The Australian beverage industry pledged to reduce the sugar content within non-alcoholic beverage portfolios back in 2018, an initiative led by the Australian Beverages Council Ltd (ABCL).

The target commitment set back then was a reduction of 20% between 2015 to 2025 – but some of the biggest firms in the industry have now decided to upgrade this by a further 5% to a 25% reduction in sugar by 2025, which would demonstrate the efficacy of these industry-led initiative.

East meets West: Yili on how dairy is improving public health in China – exclusive Growth Asia Summit insights​

Chinese dairy giant Yili has highlighted the vital, science-backed role that dairy is playing in improving consumer nutrition and public health in the country, by combining both Eastern and Western technologies.

It is no secret that the Chinese government has rapidly accelerated its focus into the dairy sector over the last few years, believing this to be a core of a balanced diet and vital source of protein and minerals that needs to be strongly encouraged amongst local consumers, advising a daily intake of 300g.

One of the country’s largest dairy companies Yili has taken the importance of dairy a step further, beyond the provision of just protein or vitamins of calcium from milk and other common dairy products.

Clear choices for children: South Korea launches ‘healthy food corners’ in convenience stores​

The South Korean government has launched specific ‘healthy food corners’ for kids in major convenience stores near schools.

The initiative was conducted as a joint project between the convenience store industry and the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), which saw the establishment of ‘healthy food corners’ at 104 convenience stores located near schools.

Beyond just a trend: Policy measures further pushing Asian food colouring sector towards natural​

Regulatory pressure from Asian governments will drive food and beverage firms to use natural colours, with it rapidly becoming less of a trend and more of a necessity.

Natural colours and colouring foods are nothing new to the food and beverage industry in APAC, but apart from the Oceania markets of Australia and New Zealand, food firms in many Asian countries have been slower to adopt.

According to food colours specialist firm Oterra, regulatory limitations in the various markets are expected to be a big driver for companies to convert from artificial to natural options.