Capri-Sun in Tesco
Tesco was especially criticised for its alleged hypocrisy as the retailer continues to sell other unhealthy products Ian Silvera / IBTimes UK

Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket chain, has announced it will stop the sale of sugar-filled juice box drinks Capri-Sun and Ribena in order to stop childhood obesity. Social media users in the UK are not happy about this, and turned to Twitter in droves to express their rage over the ban.

A Tesco spokesman told IBTimes UK: "It is worth pointing out that we will still be selling Ribena and this only concerns juice boxes as we want to stop selling the drinks to children specifically. We will still be selling the cartons with no added sugar and the bottled drinks."

"We want to help our customers make healthier choices and that's why we have pledged to continue to cut sugar from the food and drink on our shelves," he added. "From September all the children's juice drinks we sell will have no added sugar in them because we know it'll make a positive difference to children's health."

The average bottle of Ribena ready-to-drink squash (500ml) contains 52.6g of sugar, the equivalent of 13 sugar cubes. The supermarket also announced plans to reduce the sugar in its own-brand soft drinks by 5% each year and says it has already cut 4bn calories from its offerings.

Tesco was criticised for itsalleged hypocrisy as the retailer continues to sell other unhealthy products. Others slammed the decision from the retailer to cut Ribena and Capri-Sun from its shelves starting in September, arguing that they still want the soft drinks sales from the summer holidays.

Ribena was apparently sold at half price in Tesco at Canary Wharf.

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