One of the major drivers of growth in carbonates has been the development of sweeteners and consequent improvement in the quality of low calories soft drinks, particularly in the USA and UK.
Saccharin was invented in about 1874 and very rapidly became a popular as a sweetener for softdrinks, usually blended into sugar to reduce cost. It proved to be a popular sweetener in the UK, particularly when sugar was in very short supply during the First World War. A blend of sugar and saccharin (50:50) by sweetness) became the standard sweetener system for common softdrinks, for example lemonade.
Low calorie softdrinks began to gain popularity in the 1960s and a blend of 1 part saccharin to 10 parts cyclamate produced a good tasting low calorie sweetener system. However, the use of sodium cyclamate came to an abrupt end in 1969 when it was banned in the USA and UK due to evidence suggesting that it cause bladder cancer. Cyclamatic was not banned elsewhere and it remained a very popular sweetener until recent severe restrictions in the EU.The original work was later discredited but it result in saccharin being the only permitted sweetener in the UK and this severely limited the growth of low caloric drinks because of the unpleasantly bitter aftertaste of saccharin when used as a sole sweetener. The growth resumed again in the mid 1980s following the approval of aspartame and acesulfame K in the UK in 1983.
This popularity of low caloric (or light) drinks has been a massive driver of volume growth in the USA and UK, but to a lesser extent in mainland Europe. In the UK, in 1981, the only approximately 4% of the 2040 million liters of carbonates produced was a low calorie. By 2003, low calorie represented 32% of the market 0f 6500 million liters and a further 25% was reduced sugar (usually for reasons of cost).
Technology Developments of Sweeteners in Softdrinks Manufacturing
