Sugar in drinks: what the official figures show

The federal government wants to tax sugar-sweetened drinks. The official figures show three things. Manufacturers have cut the sugar per litre without a tax. Pure juices contain about as much sugar as cola and are to remain untaxed. And the drinks sector has nevertheless bought slightly more sugar of late.

1. Less sugar per litre, without a tax

The federal government’s Max Rubner Institute measures regularly how much sugar is in the best-selling soft drinks. Weighted by sales volume, the content fell from 6.2 grams per 100 millilitres in 2018 to 5.3 grams in 2024.^[1] The federal ministry for agriculture, food and Heimat speaks of almost 15 per cent less sugar.^[2] There was no sugar tax during that period.

Two qualifications belong here. The fall came almost entirely in the first year; since 2019 the value has stood between 5.3 and 5.4 grams. And the institute itself writes that the differences between the years may also be due to method, because the first survey covered only 59.5 per cent of the market and the last one 76.9 per cent.^[1]

2. Juices: as much sugar as cola, but untaxed

How much sugar a drink contains depends heavily on the type. Cola with sugar averages 9.7 grams per 100 millilitres, energy drinks 10.7, lemonades 7.8 and fruit spritzers 5.9; cola without sugar comes to 0.3.^[1] Apple juice naturally contains 9.6 grams per 100 grams, orange juice 8.5.^[3]

The health finance commission, on whose recommendation the tax goes back, expressly excludes pure juices: “Excluded are 100 % fruit juices as well as drinks consisting exclusively of 100 % fruit juice and water.”^[5]

The federal government says it is guided by this recommendation.^[6] According to media reports the finance ministry’s draft also leaves pure juices and spritzers without added sugar untaxed.^[7] For fruit nectar there is no official statement; it does not appear on the commission’s list of exclusions. So the tax asks not only how much sugar is in the glass, but also where it comes from.

3. More sugar in the drinks sector’s purchases

According to provisional figures, in the 2024/25 marketing year sugar factories and traders sold 512.8 thousand tonnes of sugar to the makers of soft drinks, fruit juice and fruit wine. That is 2.2 per cent more than the year before. According to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, almost all other food sectors bought less: confectionery makers 9.6 per cent less, bakery product makers 6.1 per cent. The only other exception is “other products”, up 1.3 per cent.^[4]

This figure measures manufacturers’ purchases, not the sugar in the glass. It covers only sucrose, that is ordinary sugar, no glucose or fructose syrup. Whether the drinks are consumed in Germany or exported it does not show.^[4] Less sugar per litre and more sugar purchased therefore do not rule each other out. The drinks sector accounts for 23 per cent of the sugar that food manufacturers buy: 512.8 of 2,236.9 thousand tonnes.^[4]

4. A rough calculation: how much sugar is in the drinks?

There is no official figure for this. A rough calculation is possible: quantity drunk times average sugar content. The Federal Environment Agency reports consumption for 2024, including imported drinks.^[8]

Consumption: Federal Environment Agency, table 1^[8]. Sugar content of soft drinks: mean of the Max Rubner Institute across all best-selling soft drinks, with and without sugar^[1]. Juices and nectars: range of the values for orange juice and multi-fruit nectar per 100 grams, applied to the litre; per litre the true value is somewhat higher^[3].

On this rough calculation the drinks contain around 0.8 million tonnes of sugar. That is more than the 512.8 thousand tonnes that sugar factories and traders sell to the drinks sector. Several reasons contribute to the difference: the fruit sugar in juice is not supplied by any sugar factory, syrup is missing from the statistics, and consumption includes imported drinks. In this rough calculation juices and nectars account for around a quarter of the sugar.

The rough calculation has its limits. No official statistics report cola separately; a calculation by type is therefore not possible with official figures. Beer mixes are missing because there is no official sugar value for them. The institute’s mean covers 76.9 per cent of the market, not all drinks.^[1]

Disclosure: the publisher of Die Aufrechte Lupe, Andreas W. Herb, is CEO of the MBG Group. By his own account the group of companies is reformulating drinks recipes and is itself affected by the planned tax. His opinion on it is set out in the essay “Die Steuer, die sich selbst widerlegt”.