Abstract High consumption of free sugars, particularly through soft drinks, represents a health concern on a global scale. Therefore, several measures, including taxation, were tentatively employed to reduce their intake. However, the decrease of sugars in soft drinks has been occurring mostly at the expense of adding non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). This study aimed to investigate the recent trends in soft drink reformulations by the food industries and to verify if these modifications can potentially lead to other health implications. For this purpose, the most consumed soft drinks in Portugal (N = 68) were purchased in local supermarkets in 2019 and their free sugar and NNS content were determined by liquid chromatography. The results were further compared with analytical data from 2008. For sugar drinks in 2019 (N = 10), 39% of the samples had a total sugar content near 5 g.L−1 and only a small fraction (15%) was above the upper bound limit of taxation (80 g.L−1). The profile and amount of sugars were distinct between groups with “colas” and “juice drinks” showing the highest variability between brands, being mostly represented by fructose and glucose. Non-nutritive sweeteners were present in most samples (85%), often in mixtures and very dependent on the type of drink. Nevertheless, the main NNS were cyclamate, aspartame and acesulfame K, with the former approaching the recommended daily dose for younger children consuming two cans per day. Over the last decade, sugar content has been reducing, especially in “Juice drinks”, together with a reduction of aspartame in these food products, balanced by an increase in cyclamate, sucralose and steviol glycosides. Unfortunately, the reformulations did not follow any attempt to reduce sweet taste intensity, which could gradually constitute a long-term educational measure.

中文翻译：

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软饮料中的糖和人造甜味剂：葡萄牙十年的演变

摘要 游离糖的大量消费，特别是通过软饮料，代表了全球范围内的健康问题。因此，临时采取了包括税收在内的若干措施来减少他们的摄入量。然而，软饮料中糖分的减少主要是以添加非营养性甜味剂 (NNS) 为代价的。本研究旨在调查食品行业对软饮料重新配制的最新趋势，并验证这些修改是否可能导致其他健康影响。为此，葡萄牙消费量最大的软饮料（N = 68）于 2019 年在当地超市购买，其游离糖和 NNS 含量通过液相色谱法测定。结果与 2008 年的分析数据进行了进一步比较。 对于 2019 年的含糖饮料（N = 10），39% 的样品总糖含量接近 5 gL-1，只有一小部分 (15%) 高于征税上限 (80 gL-1)。“可乐”和“果汁饮料”组之间的糖含量和含量不同，显示品牌之间的差异最大，主要以果糖和葡萄糖为代表。大多数样品 (85%) 中都含有非营养性甜味剂，通常以混合物形式存在，并且非常依赖于饮料的类型。尽管如此，主要的 NNS 是甜蜜素、阿斯巴甜和乙酰舒泛 K，前者接近于每天食用两罐的年幼儿童的推荐日剂量。在过去的十年中，糖含量一直在降低，尤其是“果汁饮料”中的糖含量，同时这些食品中阿斯巴甜的含量也在减少，而甜蜜素、三氯蔗糖和甜菊糖苷的增加则起到了平衡作用。