The EU Code of Conduct offers a unique opportunity to accelerate Europe’s transition to sustainable food systems. The European soft drinks industry, under the umbrella of UNESDA, is strongly supportive of the Code of Conduct and its potential to mobilise the necessary critical mass to substantially enhance the food and drink environment of European consumers.

Commitments by aspirational objectives:

Aspirational objective 1: Healthy, balanced, and sustainable diets for all European consumers, thereby contributing to: 

1) Reversing malnutrition and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the EU;

2) Reducing the environmental footprint of food consumption by 2030.

With the following aspirational targets:

a) Improved food consumption patterns in the EU; 

b) A food environment that makes it easier to choose healthy and sustainable diets.

UNESDA commitments:

• UNESDA now commits to reducing the average added sugars in its beverages by 10% from 2019 to 2025 across Europe;

• UNESDA commits not to advertise and market its beverages to children under 13 years across all media and to lower the audience threshold to 30% so that in practice fewer young children will be directly exposed to advertising for any of its soft drinks;

• UNESDA commits not to sell its beverages in primary schools and only to sell no- and low- calorie soft drinks in secondary schools (and only in non-branded vending machines). UNESDA will intensify its efforts, working with other third-party distributors, to ensure that its commitments continue to be implemented across the EU.

Aspirational objective 4: An optimised circular and resource-efficient food chain in Europe

With the following aspirational targets:

a) Improved resource efficiency within own operations, contributing to sustainable, efficient use and management of energy and natural resources in operations by 2030;

b) Improved sustainability of food and drink packaging, striving for all packaging towards circularity by 2030.

UNESDA commitments:

By 2025:

• Our beverage packaging (plastic, metal, glass) will be 100% recyclable;

• All our PET bottles will contain a minimum average of 50% rPET.

By 2030:

• All our PET bottles will be made from 100% recycled and/or renewable material if technically and economically feasible – thereby moving away from fossil fuel sources;

• UNESDA commits to achieving a closed-loop collection of beverage packaging: 90% collection of PET bottles, glass bottles, and aluminum cans by 2030;

• UNESDA commits to reducing its packaging footprint and increasing the use of refillable packaging. Use more refillable packaging by 2030 compared to 2020 and study the best environmental and economic pathway to increase the use of refillable models.

Full detail of the pledge in the provided attachment.