sugary snacks have become the latest area attacked by health campaigners. but could packaging formats help guide consumers to eat confectionery in moderation simon creasey finds outfirst it was sat fats. then salt. now sugar appears to be next in the firing line of the food police thanks to the nation&rsquos rapidly growing obesity crisis. this year has already seen a flurry of scaremongering newspaper articles, radio programmes and tv documentaries revealing the vast amount of sugar that is added to food and drink products, with the hyperbole seeing sugar labelled as &ldquothe new tobacco&rdquo and &ldquoaddictive as cocaine&rdquo by academics such as simon capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at the university of liverpool&ldquoeverywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit not health,&rdquo claims capewell. &ldquothe obesity epidemic is already generating a huge burden of disease and death. obesity and diabetes already costs the uk over £5bn every year. without regulation, these costs will exceed £50bn by 2050&rdquo.capewell aired his comments at the launch of a campaign called action on sugar, which launched in january this year and is being led by the consensus action on salt and health cash. cash, which in the past has scored numerous successes in its efforts to reduce the amount of unnecessary salt added to food, plans to make sugar its new battleground and believes that food and drink groups could &ldquoeasily&rdquo remove 2030 of added sugar in products in the next three to five years. this reduction in the nation&rsquos calorie intake would in turn reverse, or even halt, the obesity epidemic and help to significantly reduce incidents of associated diseases such as diabetes.some of these sugar reductions might well be easily achieved in product categories where the ingredient isn&rsquot a key constituent product, but what about the confectionery industry which relies heavily on sugar how can confectionery manufacturers combat this problem and is there anything that they can do in terms of the way that their products are packaged to help tackle the looming crisismisinformationadding sugar to food and drink products isn&rsquot a new phenomenon. food experts trace its roots back by at least 150 years, but the problem is that until relatively recently it&rsquos not an issue that has been properly investigated. as a result there is a lot of misinformation out there, according to one packaging source who wishes to remain nameless as he has a number of key clients who operate in this area.&ldquosugar is not all bad,&rdquo says the source. &ldquomany brands are actively bringing back real andor natural sugars into their foods, including some of our clients. they see that a return to basics, where people choose to consume sugar in moderate quantities, is a good thing and even beats artificial sweeteners in some cases.&rdquofinding confectionery manufacturers or branding agencies to talk openly about this issue is incredibly difficult at the moment given how it has sky rocketed into the nation&rsquos consciousness over the last few months a number of manufacturers and agencies refused to contribute to this article due to the sensitivity of the subject. that&rsquos largely because the issue appears to have reached a tipping point and is unlikely to go away any time soon, says gillian garsidewight, packaging technology director at sun branding solutions.&ldquoi don&rsquot believe the backlash on sugar will pass, especially on products and brands that are targeted at children,&rdquo says garsidewight. &ldquothis is a real threat to sales, unless products make active changes to be responsible and reduce sugar content.&rdquoit&rsquos a view shared by laura jones, global food science analyst at mintel. &ldquothe spotlight on sugar and its bad reputation cannot be dismissed as merely a fad in the dieting world,&rdquo says jones. &ldquosugar features as an ingredient in an extensive range of food and drink products in today&rsquos marketplace, becoming a staple in our diets rather than a treat. the push to desweeten and cut our sugar from our diets continues as high sugar diets are targeted as a key contributor to growing waistlines.&rdquosales opportunityas a result, jones argues that all manufacturers &ndash including confectionery suppliers &ndash cannot afford to ignore the problem any longer and must start to rethink the sugar content of their products. while the major potential downside to ignoring the problem is lost sales as people seek out and switch to healthier alternatives, jones believes that there is an opportunity for proactive manufacturers to actually grow sales in the current climate.&ldquohealthier versions of confectionery will not only appeal to consumers trying to cut back on sugar, they may also attract consumers who typically avoid these categories outright. innovation around lower sugar products may also circumvent any future regulations introduced that target sugary products,&rdquo says jones. launching more sugarfree ranges is one avenue manufacturers are currently exploring &ndash it&rsquos an obvious road to take when you consider how small the market for sugarfree confectionery products is in the uk at the moment compared to our european counterparts.&ldquosome 63 of the spanish confectionery market is sugarfree,&rdquo says tom coombes, associate director mmr research worldwide. &ldquoin italy it is 30, in switzerland it is 20, but in the uk it is just 3. as shocking as this is it puts into perspective that sugarfree is actually an area with huge growth potential, particularly now that the &lsquodangers&rsquo of sugar are being actively discussed and debated in a way that no one can really avoid.&rdquoone option that a number of confectionery manufacturers are actively exploring at the moment is portion control packs, which allow consumers to better control their calorie intake. by taking this approach manufacturers don&rsquot have to invest millions of pounds on reformulating their recipes to reduce the sugar content and in the process risk losing consumers who love the way that the product currently tastes.some inroads have already been made in this area, according to jones, who cites a number of recent examples ranging from kit kat bars being repackaged in a pack containing eight 20g packs through to marks & spencer selling its 135g crispy fudge bars as five individually wrapped 27g bars.another option potentially worth exploring is &lsquoeat now, eat later&rsquo packaging, believes garsidewight. &ldquosimilar to some fruit packaging, this is where the packaging helps consumers know exactly what a portion looks like if meant to be eaten at different sittings,&rdquo she explains.it&rsquos not just the fresh fruit category that manufacturers could borrow cues from &ndash garsidewight cites the example of dried pasta and rice manufacturers who have printed portion size indicators on the side of their packaging as an opportunity worth exploring. manufacturers in these categories were also among the first to adopt resealable options, which is something that more confectionery companies are actively pursuing at the moment.&ldquocompanies have been looking particularly closely at how pack functionality can further build an interactive relationship between a product and the consumer, giving the end user more control over aspects, such as portion control and product protection,&rdquo says martin dallas, commercial director of essentra packaging. &ldquofor example, a resealable pack can combine user convenience with product protection, portion control and the minimisation of food waste. such additional benefits can help to reinforce positive perceptions about a product and support brand image and positioning.&rdquorevolutionary approachthe same upsides could also be achieved by the way a product&rsquos nutritional information is presented on pack, if manufacturers were prepared to take a more revolutionary approach, according to david rogers, founder of we are pure.&ldquogenerally &ndash and it might be a little radical &ndash if manufacturers were forced to put the calorie content on the front of packaging upfront and bold, not small as part of lengthy nutritional information, at least consumers would know immediately what they are getting,&rdquo says rogers. &ldquobut to start to educate people you&rsquod have to apply that everywhere and as far as i&rsquom aware &lsquofast food&rsquo chains are not forced to indicate calories on their products, yet a burger, fries and shake from the leading chain would contain approaching 1,500 calories.&rdquogiven the momentum that&rsquos built up over the course of the last few months it&rsquos clear that the antisugar lobby are not going to go away any time soon. innovation costs money and confectionery manufacturers operate on very thin margins, but the quicker they can find clever ways to demonstrate and communicate portion sizes to consumers through a combination of rethinking packaging formats and graphics, the better it will be all round.the key challengesthe innovation challengea lot of confectionery sales are single serve &ndash or &lsquocountline&rsquo &ndash products that retail for under £1. packaging on these products is minimal and the margins are fairly slim, making it incredibly difficult for manufacturers to offer innovative pack solutions that might carry a high development cost.portion controlthe major confectionery growth area over the last couple of years has been sharing bags, which could have played a role in fuelling the nation&rsquos obesity crisis as consumers indulge in what&rsquos been term &lsquomindless munching&rsquo. although resealable tapes have been added to these packs to encourage portion control, manufacturers could explore the option of placing individually wrapped products inside the pack or print portion control messages on the side of the bags.incorporating mobile technologydue to the relatively small size of confectionery products graphical space is at a premium and brands don&rsquot want to clutter their packs with messages about nutrition. one option is to place qr codes onto packs that are scanned by consumers and linked to a device such as jawbone, fitbit or a phone app &ndash when the consumer has reached their optimum sugar level for the day the device could alert them with a message.vox pop could confectionery suffer from a sugar backlashdavid rogers, founder, we are pure&ldquoblaming the confectionery market for peddling sugar feels like another kneejerk reaction. you know what you&rsquore buying, whereas there is still an issue with hidden sugar in foods. that said, sugarfree sweets and chocolate will become a noticeable feature on supermarket shelves in the not too distant future. rather than being a problem any backlash could spurn a major new industry.&rdquobrett beach, cofounder, madécasse&ldquochocolate is a food category that is very resistant to economic downturns and it enjoys the same stability with regards to ingredient composition. the basic ingredients of a chocolate bar &ndash cocoa and sugar &ndash have not changed in centuries so it&rsquos doubtful that a sugar backlash will create major change in the industry.&rdquoandy paul, managing director, the cabinet&ldquoif consumers have strong willpower and can avoid the calling of the halfeaten family bag of chocolate, or are able to control their indulgence, then the resealable bags launched several years ago are a good thing. but let&rsquos face it &ndash if you&rsquore hooked you&rsquore hooked and it&rsquoll take more than a notional message or a resealable pack to effect behavioural change.&rdquochris peach, head of packaging and design, marketing sciences&ldquopackaging design can certainly help confectionery brands to appear healthier. colours can be muted to evoke feelings of health and support claims such as &lsquolow fat&rsquo or &lsquoreduced sugar&rsquo. however, these risk making the product appear dull. people buy confectionery to indulge and brands must ensure they don&rsquot appear so healthy that they lose their &lsquotreat&rsquo status.&rdquo 
