The term soft drink was made to differentiate flavoured drinks from hard liquor or distilled spirits.
Perhaps, consumption of soft drink is the best option for those people who have a daily habit to consume hard drink or alcoholic drink. If they are supposed to not consume alcoholic drink because soft drinks are better than alcoholic drink.
In the new era, soft drinks are available in different categories like low calorie, low sodium, no caffeine, diet soft drinks and having low sugar or sugar-free (zero sugar) content. Soft drink is the class of any non-alcoholic beverage generally, every non-alcoholic drink is a soft drink that having no alcohol but not needed to have carbonated.
Soft drinks are normally containing a natural or artificial sweetening agent, flavours, edible acids and sometimes it may be a juice. Some natural flavours are used to prepare like fruits, nuts, berries, roots, herbs and other plant sources. In simple terms, “soft drink” is the diluted juice or flavour of fruits and vegetables with adding sweetening agent. Coffee, tea, milk and cocoa have not come under the category of soft drink.
The other category can be classified as juice-based soft drinks, squash and syrup. Soft drinks like orange, lime and lemon-based drinks are under the category of aerated soft drinks. These drinks contain water, carbon dioxide (CO2), colour, additives, and preservatives.
For the preparation of soft drinks, the raw material required is sugar, citric acid, essence, activated carbon, caustic soda, liquid glucose and CO2. We can make soft drinks and carbonated soft drinks at home due to easily available raw materials.
History and some facts
Soft drinks do not have alcohol content that is why they are called soft drink. In the second half of the 17th century, first soda drinks appeared in Europe and most popular in France. Most popular soft drinks are available nowadays like flavoured water, carbonated water, sweet iced tea, fruit drinks, carbonated soft drinks and fruit punch.
The Englishman Joseph Priestley invented the process of carbonating water (infusing water with carbon dioxide) in 1767. Governments placed tight rules on production, sales, taxation, and marketing of soda drinks due to health worries. In the world, Coca-Cola is the largest manufacturer of carbonated soft drinks. They manufacture a popular brand like Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and orange-flavoured soda drink Fanta. Sweet drinks have high kilojoules which increase weight and obesity.
Nowadays young generation consumes more soft drinks with fast food so there are chances to gain more weight and develop diabetes. For more production of soft drinks, Michael Owens invented automated production of soft drink bottles in 1899, which had the capacity to fill 58,000 bottles per day.
A study was found that the people who consume diet and regular soda gain more fat as compared to other people who did not consume or drink any kind of soda. American people consume over 1.7 million tonne of sugar each year from Coca-Cola alone. This is equal to 10.8 pounds of sugar per person per year.
Health aspect : Soft drinks
For healthy practices of consumers, the drinking of either natural or artificial water is considered a good thing. Once upon a time, American pharmacists sold mineral water by using added medicinal and flavoured herbs to unflavoured mineral water.
As per history, the first flavoured carbonated soft drink was made in 1807 by Dr Philip Syng Physick of Philadelphia. The consumer wants to take health drinks so the soft drink or bottling industry grew on the basis of consumer demand.
Consumer health aspect foods and drinks for food and beverage companies are the topmost priority and important thing to get consumer satisfaction because quality food is better than quantity food so nowadays people want quality and health aspect foods and beverages. So that’s why the beverages industry classified the soft drink according to consumer health aspects such as low calorie, low sodium, no caffeine, diet soft drinks and having low sugar or sugar-free (zero sugar) content.
Soft drinks generally have excess sugar for sweetening which may be associated with obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dental caries, and low nutrient levels. Number of experiments have been conducted by researchers to identify the role of sugar in illness. Sugar-sweetened include drinks such as high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose. Caffeine is related to anxiety and sleep disturbance when it is consumed in excess amount. As reported by some researchers from the University of Sheffield, sodium benzoate may be responsible for possible cause of DNA damage and hyperactivity.
Role of functional drinks in beverages sector
Functional drinks are very important in today's scenario due to various deficiency of nutrition in fast food and other popular food and beverages. Functional beverages are defined as the drink product which does not have alcohol and they include formulation of ingredients like herbs, vitamins, minerals, amino acids or by using fruits and vegetables.
The functional beverages segment is nothing but a subsector of the functional food and non-alcoholic beverages industry and I think it is the fastest-growing sector nowadays. Functional beverages play a critical role in our daily life and contribute to nutritional well-being. Efforts towards understanding and developing functional beverages to promote health and wellness have been increased. In recent times, functional beverages are the key role in foods and beverages and the fastest-growing sector and they also help in the prevention of disease. So that to fulfil nutritional parameters for the consumption of foods and beverages, the production and consumption of functional foods and beverages are speedily growing nowadays.
