Published : Dec. 3, 2015 - 18:15
Carbonated drinks were South Korea’s most consumed non-water drink last year, Food Ministry data revealed Thursday.
Carbonated drinks took up about 44.2 percent of Koreans’ average non-water beverage consumption, surpassing fruit and vegetable drinks (15.2 percent) and processed coffee and coffee-flavored drinks (9.6 percent). Soy milk and yogurt drinks took up 8.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively.
According to the data, Koreans drank an average of 183.1 milliliters of beverages a day in 2014, not including water and milk. Soda took up 81 milliliters of the total intake.
Soda’s share of total beverage consumption, however, has steadily decreased over years, the data showed. In 2012, the annual sales volume of soda stood at 38.7 percent of all beverage sales here. This figure fell to 36.2 percent in 2014.
According to the ministry’s consumer survey of 500 people, about 57.2 percent of the respondents picked soda’s high sugar content as their main reason for shunning soda.