Diabetics warned over soft drink

Diabetics must keep close control of their blood sugar levels

Diabetics have been warned to be aware of imported cans of a soft drink that could pose a serious health risk to them.

The UK version of Pepsi Max is safe for diabetics to drink because it contains artificial sweeteners, rather than sugar.

But a batch of the drink, imported from Canada, does contain sugar.

There could be thousands of these cans out there and people suffering with diabetes need to be very careful

John Cheetham, trading standards officer

Trading standards officers are concerned that diabetics may drink the imported cans, mistakenly believing them to be safe.

If they do so, they run the risk of falling into a coma. For children the elevated blood sugar level could prove fatal.

Alarm raised

The alarm was raised after a man complained to trading standards officers in Nottingham that he had become ill after drinking a can of Pepsi Max.

Officers examined the can the drink came from and found that the Canadian version is labelled as "reduced sugar" as opposed to "sugar-free".

Principal trading standards officer for the county John Cheetham said: "There could be thousands of these cans out there and people suffering with diabetes need to be very careful.

"We have traced the supplier and issued a warning to our colleagues across the country to be aware of what we have found."

They will ask shopkeepers to check stocks of the popular soft drink and remove any of the imported cans from the shelves.

Mr Cheetham added: "The level of danger depends on the level of diabetes that someone has and how closely they have to balance their sugar intake.

"The imported cans are labelled as having sugar, but the fear is always that someone simply picks up the can and drinks it."

He said the imported cans also had French writing on them.

A spokesman for Pepsi said the Canadian version of the drink was the only one which did contain sugar because of strict local laws on artificial sweeteners.

He said: "This is the first case we have come across where this product has been on sale in Britain.

"Variations in product formulas do occur around the world but in this case the can was correctly labelled."

He added that Pepsi had no part in the import of the drinks.

The unnamed diabetic in Nottinghamshire has since made a full recovery.