The Sweet And Synthetic Way American Fanta Differs From Its UK Counterpart

Despite Fanta's slightly dark origins, it is now one of the top 10 soft drinks in both the U.S. and the U.K. The two versions are not created equal, however, with local food regulations and cultural differences causing some serious variation.

The main differences are the amount of sugar and the source of the flavors and colorings. While the ingredient labels of the two products start the same way, with carbonated water, the second main ingredient is startlingly different. For American Fanta, it's high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and for U.K. Fanta, it's orange juice from concentrate.

Judging by the lack of the keyword "orange" in the ingredients list, it seems the flavor of American Fanta doesn't come from orange juice at all, with the label simply citing "natural flavors." The exact recipe is probably a trade secret that the Coca-Cola company guards closely. And the taste isn't the only thing that doesn't come from oranges — while the orange juice and some carrot and pumpkin extract is what gives U.K. Fanta its classic OJ color, American Fanta uses synthetic food dyes Yellow no. 6 and Red no. 40 to create a shade that's closer to the skin of an orange, rather than its juice. Americans may need to brace themselves for a change to this classic color, however, since both of these dyes are included in the FDA's latest food dye ban.

With HFCS as one of its main ingredients, it's no surprise that American Fanta is very sweet and calorific. It contains approximately 45 calories and 12 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, with the 20-ounce bottles listed on the official website containing 143% of the recommended daily added sugar intake.

In comparison, U.K. Fanta contains 19 calories and 4.5 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, with a standard 500 milliliter (16.9 FL OZ) bottle containing 45% of the recommended daily sugar intake.

The reason for this difference is simple — the U.K. introduced a soft drinks industry levy in 2018 that charges companies a fee of 18 pence  (around 24 cents) per liter when selling soft drinks with more than five grams of sugar per 100 milliliters. This caused many soft drink manufacturers to change their U.K. recipes, including Fanta. By making some tweaks and adding some low-calorie sweeteners, it was able to reduce sugar content by 33% and sneak under the threshold (though this change to the original recipe made some people mad).

Even before this levy, however, the U.K. recipe was not the same as the American one. Tastes vary in different parts of the world, as does ingredient availability, so it's natural for companies to tweak recipes to suit the target audience and optimize manufacturing in each area.