Recently, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said that steps would be taken to strongly implement the gazette notification making it compulsory for the sugar contents in soft drinks to be indicated through a colour code label.

The gazette notification stated that the sugar contents in all soft drinks should be indicated through a colour code and that the law would be effective from 01 August 2016.

When Ada Derana Biz inquired from the soft drinks manufacturer under the Elephant brand name, Ceylon Cold Stores (CCS), its Chief of Marketing Sathish Ratnayake said that his company agrees with this law and that that they would abide by the government regulations.

Sathish Ratnayake added, “We have prepared ourselves for this since some time ago. So we took steps to reduce the sugar contents in our soft drinks by 30 per cent.”

He further said that steps are being taken to adhere to this law by 01 August and the necessary new labels etc are now being prepared.

According to this ‘sugar law’, if the sugar contents in 100 millilitres of any soft drink exceeds 11gms then the label should carry a RED indicator, if the sugar contents are between 02gms and 11gms which is medium, then the label should carry a YELLOW indicator and if the sugar contents are less than 02gms this indicator should be GREEN.