Company and Fruit Industry News

From: Juice Products Association, Sept. 2, 2011

To: All JPA Members

Dear Members,

JPA staff would like to alert you to a new nationwide initiative, launched yesterday, aimed at reducing consumption of "sugary beverages." The Center for the Science In The Public Interest (CSPI)-led campaign, Life's Sweeter with Fewer Sugary Drinks, challenges consumers to limit soda and other sugary drinks in "the home, workplace, and community." Per the campaign's publicity materials:

[The campaign] will seek to decrease average consumption of sugary drinks to roughly 3 cans per person per week by 2020. The campaign's web site, fewersugarydrinks.org, invites individuals and families to take the Life's Sweeter challenge to drink fewer or no sugary drinks. The campaign is encouraging employers, hospitals, and government agencies to adopt policies that would reduce soda consumption. Besides carbonated soda, the campaign targets fruit-flavored beverages with little or no juice, sweetened iced teas, lemonades, energy drinks, and so-called sports drinks such as Gatorade.

The full list of targeted beverages follows:

• Non-diet carbonated beverages
• Fruit-ades such as lemonade, fruit punch, powdered fruit drinks, and fruit drinks containing less than 100% fruit juice
• Sports drinks
• Flavored waters
• Energy drinks
• Sweetened teas

The campaign has the support of the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and health departments in several major cities, including Los Angeles, Boston and Philadelphia. 

Staff will continue to monitor for coverage of the new campaign and will keep you updated as the launch progresses.

Sincerely,