Tesco has announced it will remove Ribena and Capri-Sun soft drinks from its shelves to coincide with the start of the new Autumn school term.
The move is a bid to help combat childhood obesity, although the retailer is not banning other soft drinks such as Coca Cola.
The drinks will either replaced by no-added-sugar alternatives or Tesco no-added-sugar own-label products.
Ribena fans have responded with outrage on social media, as one tweeted that she could “forgive you for horse meat, Tesco, but I cannot forgive you for this”.
Tesco’s soft drinks buying manager David Beardmore told The Grocer: 'This is part of our 10-point plan against obesity and we have decided that from September we will only sell no-added-sugar drinks in the kids’ juice category.”
The news is likely to be a blow for British blackcurrant growers who supply Ribena. It also comes as James Hutton Institute's commercial subsidiary James Hutton Limited signed a five-year blackcurrant breeding contract with Ribena owner Lucozade Ribena Suntory.
