| Summary: | Ready pre-packaged beverage drinks, also commonly known as 3-in-one instant
powder drinks, have been increased in popularity among populations of all age groups. It
is because they are cheap in cost, convenience, long shelf-life and pleasant taste. An
increase consumption of these instant premix drinks is of particular concern because of
its high sugar contents. But, none of this information has been documented on sugar
composition profile analysis for the ready pre-packaged beverage drinks in Malaysia.
Hence, the main objective of present study was to quantify the sugar composition profile
of ready pre-packaged beverage drinks that are commonly available in Malaysia and
secondly, to compare the differences of sugar contents between a HPLC analysis values
and nutrition label on the packaging. A total of 34 selected samples consisted of 13
coffee drinks, 9 tea drinks, 7 chocolate malt drinks, and 5 mixed tonic and herb drinks were sampled from various locations. Quantification of sugar composition profiles of these drinks was determined using the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
with refractive index (RI) detector. Results showed that total sugar contents of coffee,
tea, chocolate malt drinks, and tonic/herb were ranges between 29 to 90.33 g/lOOg,
36.33 to 75.67 g/lOOg, 21.67 to 83 g/lOOg, and 59.67 to 72.67 g/lOOg, respectively.
Coffee had the highest sugar contents (Mean=67.9), followed by tonic/herb
(Mean=65.9) and tea (Mean=57.3), while chocolate malt drinks contributed to lower
amount of sugars (Mean=44.0). Sugar composition analyses found that all samples
contained sucrose (100%; n=34), followed by glucose (94.1%; n=32), and maltose
(76.5%; n=26). Comparisons of sugar levels of all samples of similar category found that
there was no significant difference in total sugar contents among coffee groups. Tea A was significantly higher than other types of drinks such as ginger tea and lemon tea (all,
pcO.OOl). Analysis of nutrition labelling on packaging revealed that only 71% of
samples (n=24) contained total sugar contents labelling. Comparisons between total
sugar levels from HPLC analysis values and nutrition label showed that 58% (n=14) of
these drinks had higher total sugar contents analysed by HPLC compared to the total
sugar levels on their label, with 57% (n=8) had mean differences of >30%. Meanwhile,
42% (n=10) of them had total sugars content more than amount obtained from HPLC
analysis. Based on HPLC analysis, most of the samples analyzed contained up to 4
teaspoons of sugar (ranges between 1 to 5 teaspoons of sugar). These findings suggest
that instant premix beverages marketed in Malaysia are commonly high in sugars.
Consumption of these instant premix beverages should be replaced with other healthier
alternative beverage choices in order to prevent excessive weight gain and other
metabolic-related disorders.
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