Analysis of the range of soft drinks containing food colours and flavourings: retail example

Abstract

Soft drinks are widely used and have steady demand. The content of beverages includes food colours and flavourings of different origins. Currently, consumers prefer drinks that contain natural raw materials. The purpose of this study is to analyze the product range and informational identification of the naturalness of food colours and flavourings declared by the producers of soft drinks presented by the domestic food retailers. The study objects are 48 soft drinks of various brands sold in the Lenta retail chain. When performing research, methods of analysis and systematization were used. The study of food colours and flavourings contained in soft drinks was based on the method of observation and content analysis. As a result of this study, information about ingredients indicated on the labels of soft drinks from the product range of the Lenta retail chain was researched. When studying the labels, special attention was paid to the presence or absence of food colours and flavourings in the sold beverages as well as whether these ingredients are natural. Depending on the presence of colours and/or flavourings in the beverage, the structure calculation of the soft drinks range was made. It was found that a great part of the Lenta assortment includes soft drinks that are coloured with one or more natural food colours (48 %), as well as soft drinks that do not contain food colours (25 %). Synthetic food colours are found in 21 % of beverages; soft drinks containing natural and synthetic colours make up 6 % of the range. It is revealed that there is no uniformity of information about the flavouring used in the labelling of soft drinks, consequently it makes difficult for the consumer to choose the product. Attained results can have practical implementation. The product range formation of domestic soft drinks of adequate quality helps to increase the competitiveness of Russian brands, reduce the consumer health risk, and meet consumer demand for quality products.