Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero respond to ‘shocking’ sugar levels in hot drinks

The Independent asked Starbucks, Costa, Caffe Nero and KFC what they thought

Starbucks' venti hot mulled fruit in grape with chai, orange and cinnamon has 99g of sugar per serving (Starbucks)

The high street food outlets behind the hot drinks containing “shocking” sugar levels have responded.

The Independent asked Starbucks, Costa, Caffe Nero and KFC what they thought of analysis by the campaign group that named their drinks the “worst offenders” for selling drinks containing too much sugar.

Action on Sugar analysed 131 hot drinks and found a third contained at least as much sugar as a can of Pepsi or Coca-Cola, which contains nine teaspoons.

(Action on Sugar)

The maximum recommended intake of added sugar per day for those aged 11 and over is about 30g or seven teaspoons, according to the NHS.

Caffe Nero

A Caffe Nero coffee store in central London (Daniel Berehulak / Getty)

The drink-in version of Caffe Nero’s Caramelatte contains 50.6g of sugar per serving, almost double the recommended daily allowance, Action for Sugar said.

A spokesperson said: “Caffè Nero is committed to reducing the sugar content in our drinks and we have already made changes to reduce the sugar content of some of our iced drinks for summer 2016 by over 10%.

“In addition, we offer sugar free syrups for many drinks, and all nutritional information is available on our website so that customers can make an informed choice.”

Costa

Costa said it had already taken steps to reduce the amount of sugar in its drinks

The drink-in version of Costa’s chai latte contains 79.7g of sugar per serving, almost three times the recommended daily allowance, Action for Sugar said.

A spokesperson said: "Costa takes the nutritional balance of our food and drink very seriously and we have already taken significant steps to reduce the sugar content of our ranges.

“This April we will be setting salt and sugar reduction targets for 2020.”

Starbucks

Starbucks are committed to reducing added sugar in its indulgent drinks by 25 per cent by the end of 2020

Starbucks appeared on the list of most sugary drinks several times, but their worst offender was the Venti hot mulled fruit in grape with chai, orange and cinnamon, which has 99g of sugar per serving, more than three times the recommended daily allowance, Action for Sugar said.

A spokesperson said: “Earlier this year we committed to reduce added sugar in our indulgent drinks by 25% by the end of 2020.”

“We also offer a wide variety of lighter options, sugar-free syrups and sugar-free natural sweetener and we display all nutritional information in-store and online.”

KFC did not respond to requests for comment by pixel time.