What are added sugars?

These are the sugars and syrups added to foods whilst cooking at home or during food manufacturing.

Sugars are added during food processing- not only to give the product a sweet taste, but also to add texture and body to the final product. Added sugars usually come in the form of table sugar (produced from the cane or sugar beet), dextrose, glucose or glucose-fructose syrups produced from wheat or maize starch.

Because added sugars have the same chemical structure as naturally occurring sugars (e.g. sugars found in fruit, vegetables, honey, dairy), they are all digested by the human body in the same way.

According to EU law, sugars added during preparation must be included in the list of ingredients displayed on a product’s packaging.