It tastes like drain cleaner, moan critics of new Ribena

FANS of Ribena have blasted its maker for “secretly” changing its recipe – and claim it now tastes more like “drain cleaner”.

The Suntory Group, which makes the soft drink, cut the sugar content by half last month.

Ribena now contains under 5g of sugar with the rest replaced by sweeteners acesulfame K and sucralose.

The firm has also thickened the drink so its consistency appears to be the same as before by adding polydextrose, which can cause bloating and flatulence.

But some Ribena fans said they will stop buying it. It follows a boycott by customers of Irn-Bru and Robinsons Fruit Shoot, which have also swapped some of their sugar content for sweetener ahead of new tax rules on sugar content which come in next month.

Hundreds of customers have complained on Ribena’s Facebook page.

Paul Norton wrote: “Massive fail thinking no one would notice you changed the recipe! Bring back a full strength sugar Ribena.” Paul Court wrote: “Just came on here to find out why our Ribena tastes like drain cleaner. Very silly move Ribena.” Andy Sayle wrote: “It’s got a horrible bitterish aftertaste. I perused the ingredients list, and lo and behold, artificial sweeteners are in there.”

A Ribena spokesman said: “We want to assure customers that we did not make this change lightly. We did so because of the trend for consumers wanting lower and no sugar drinks and with the obesity challenge facing this country.”

He added: “We undertook over 100 recipe trials with 100 people. The recipe change was first announced in November 2016. The new recipe is stated on all bottles and hit the shelves in March.”