Because of these health concerns, manufacturers started using non-nutritive sweeteners to sweeten food as well. These sweeteners contain little to no kilojoules and include both artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, and those that come from natural sources, such as stevia., shows the amount of added sugars and non-nutritive sweeteners in packaged foods and drinks has grown a lot over the last decade.
We found per person volumes of non-nutritive sweeteners in drinks is now 36 percent higher globally. Added sugars in packaged food is 9 percent higher. Non-nutritive sweeteners are most commonly added to confectionery. Ice creams and sweet biscuits are the fastest-growing food categories in terms of these sweeteners. The expanding use of added sugars and other sweeteners over the last decade means, overall, our packaged food supply is getting sweeter.Our analysis shows the amount of added sugar used to sweeten drinks has increased globally.