Sugar App

A new app has been designed to help parents determine the actual sugar content of food and drinks.

20:50 06 January 2016

Public Health England has released the “sugar smart app” that tells parents the actual sugar content of food and drinks. It works by scanning barcodes and revealing total sugar in cubes or grams.

 

The app’s goals are to help combat tooth decay, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. It also aims to encourage families to choose healthier alternatives.

 

PHE says that on average, children aged four to ten years old are consuming 22kg of added sugar per year. It’s newly developed app, which is part of its Change4Life advertising campaign, works on 75,000 products.

 

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist from Public Health England, said: "If there's one thing I'd strongly encourage parents to do, and that's to swap sugary drinks out of their kids' diets for either a low-sugar drink or water or low-fat milk, which would be a really excellent choice."

Daily recommended sugar limits

 

§  Four to six year olds - five sugar cubes or 19g

 

§  Seven to ten year olds - six sugar cubes or 24g

 

§  11 year olds and above - seven sugar cubes or 30g