The Presence of Added Sugars and Other Sweeteners in Food and Beverage Products Advertised on Television in the United States, 2022.

Background/objectives: The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend consuming less than 10% of total calories from added sugars. Low-calorie sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and natural low-calorie sweeteners are used to reduce added sugar intake, but there are concerns about their long-term health impacts, especially for children. This paper describes the food and beverage television advertising landscape as it pertains to sweeteners.

Methods: This cross-sectional study uses television ratings data licensed from The Nielsen Company for the United States in 2022. Nutrition facts panels and ingredient lists were collected for food and beverage product advertisements seen on television and assessed for the presence of added sugars, low-calorie sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and natural low-calorie sweeteners (forms of stevia and monk fruit), as well as whether products were high in added sugars based on federal Interagency Working Group guidelines for advertising to children.

Results: Of the sweeteners examined, added sugars were most commonly found in food and beverage product advertisements seen on television (60-68% of advertisements seen across age groups), followed by low-calorie sweeteners (6-10%), sugar alcohols (2-4%), and natural low-calorie sweeteners (2%). About one-third (32-33%) of advertisements seen by 2-5- and 6-11-year-olds were high in added sugars, similar to the percentage seen by 12-17- and 18+-year-olds (34-35%). Advertisements seen for cereal (86-95%) and sweets (92-93%) were most likely to have added sugars, while those for sweets (89-90%) were most likely to be high in added sugars.

Conclusions: Sweeteners are common in food and beverage product advertisements seen on television, including alternatives to added sugars for which there are concerns about long-term impacts on health. Continued monitoring and additional research on other advertising media platforms used by food and beverage companies (e.g., digital media) is needed.