Kiwi sports drink needs more sugar: MPI

File photo.

A sports drink company says it's astonished food authorities are demanding it put five times more sugar in its product if it wishes to continue calling itself an electrolyte drink.

But the Ministry for Primary Industires says the demand is based on the best available science and is in accordance with Food Standards Australia and New Zealand formulas.

These require an electrolyte sports drink to contain five times more sugar than that found in SOS.

It's warned SOS it has until August 31 to change its labelling.

However, SOS's founders argue the standards are outdated and there are no similar requirements under World Health Organisation and US and European Union food standards.

"[MPI's] reliance on discredited science means that Kiwis looking to rehydrate after exercise are being exposed to far higher levels of sugar than necessary," says SOS co-founder Tom Mayo.

The company says MPI's request is in conflict with current medical campaigns aimed at encouraging people to reduce their daily sugar intake.

It also says the New Zealand food standards formula for sports drinks was due to be reviewed with the science behind the WHO's oral rehydration guidelines showing "high levels of sugar are no longer needed for hydration".

But MPI food risk assessment manager Roger Cook disagrees.

The WHO guidelines did not refer to sports drinks but to products designed to rehydrate seriously ill patients, who would suffer diarrhoea if they drank too much sugar, he told TVNZ.

"The science [for sports electrolye rehydration drinks] very clearly says that you need to have that high sugar content to actively encourage the transfer of the water from the gut across to the bloodstream," he says.

"And none of the recent science we've seen is in conflict with that."

Roger says SOS can either change its packaging label or, if it has compelling scientific evidence backing its claims, to present them to MPI or FSANZ.

-AAP

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