The largest three soft drink companies – Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepisCo – pledged to slash the amount of calories Americans drink in their sodas. The cut will be 20% over the next 10 years through distribution packaging and marketing.
On Tuesday, the commitment was made during the Clinton Global Initiative that was celebrating its 10th anniversary.
It was an acknowledgement by the soda companies how much of a role the products they produce play in the obesity crisis as well as in the increasing rate of diabetes with heart disease in the U.S.
The soft drinks are nearly 6% of the daily average calorie intake of consumers.
The companies’ goals are to reduce the calorie consumption of each American in sugary soft drinks by as much as 30% by 2025.
The soda makers are going to increase their presence of their low as well as no calorie soft drinks and their drinks that are sold in sizes that are smaller.
The soft drink makers will also educate consumers through promotions and encourage their users to lower the calories ingested.
This program will cover vending machines that are company owned and coolers that are inside the different convenience stores and dispensers of fountain soda like those in different fast food establishments as well as movie theaters.
The soda companies are in control of nearly all of those types of machines, about a third of the vending machines and 80% of the convenience store coolers.
It will enter grocery stores as well in promotions on the end of aisles and other forms of marketing.
The new commitment builds on a previous one that the companies made to lower the amount of calories in drinks they sell in schools across the nation.
It will include lessons learned in San Antonio and Chicago where they worked alongside mayors trying to improve the municipal employees’ health by lowering calories in sodas that were sold in public building vending machines.
