Unlike American heavyweights Coca-Cola and Sprite, Fanta is, in fact, a European superstar.
The product was launched in Naples, Italy in 1955, making it the second oldest brand of The Coca-Cola Company after the iconic Coca-Cola (An earlier iteration of Fanta does date back to 1940 in Germany: although this version was discontinued in 1949).
Today, Fanta is globally known as a fan-favorite orange soda: loved by children and adults alike.
But not all Fanta is the same...
Fanta: An international chameleon
Many international travelers notice something odd when they buy Fanta.
The color and flavor differs between the US and Europe.
Fanta in the US uses high fructose corn syrup, Yellow 6 and Red 40. But in Europe, HFCS is increasingly out of vogue; while the use of Yellow 6 and Red 40 becomes complicated: since 2010, the use of these artificial dyes have required warning labels to be displayed on the finished product, as per EU law.
That’s driven a shift in the EU and neighboring UK: Fanta in the UK, for example, does not use these ingredients, instead turning to vegetable extracts such as carrot and pumpkin alongside natural orange flavorings. For sweetness, it uses sugar, acesulfame K and sucralose.
In Europe, Fanta’s product development has been led by Coca-Cola’s R&D center in Brussels. Here, the team’s role is to analyse the preference of local markets and assess local regulations, before fine-tuning recipes to reflect consumer preferences. It then works with local bottlers (primarily Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Coca-Cola HBC) to test these products in the market and ultimately roll them out on shelves.
But for the team, it’s not just about innovating for Europe: it’s about creating products for all the markets on the continent.
Italy: The home of Fanta
Fanta is a particular point of pride for Italy, where the brand was born: here, it’s been celebrating its roots with its 70th anniversary this year with its ‘70 anni di momenti frizzanti’ (70 years of sparkling moments) campaign, which journeys through time with the brand.
In Italy, Fanta contains 11g sugar per 100ml; compared to 12.4g per 100ml in the US.
But even within Europe, the sugar and sweetener content of Fanta varies dramatically. A Fanta in France, for example, contains 5.9g sugar per 100ml; in the UK it contains 4.5g sugar per 100ml.
In the UK, the product was reformulated before the introduction of the UK sugar tax in 2018, with 4.5g seeing it come in below the sugar tax threshold.
But now, the UK government has announced that the levy will be extended to drinks with 4.5g sugar and above: and Fanta is back in the firing line. Will Fanta re-reformulate to escape the sugar tax again? Or will it point consumers to its Fanta Zero innovation?
Spain is another market where the Fanta has taken on the sugar reduction challenge: the Brussels R&D team recently lowered the sugar content of the beverage ‘while maintaining the same delight consumers have loved for decades’.
Fanta might be a classic drink loved around the world – indeed, it celebrates its 70th birthday this year – but it’s a drink that looks set to continue to evolve with the times. Will it reformulate in the UK to avoid the new soda tax? Will it do so in the US as pressure builds? (Coca-Cola has recently launched a version with cane sugar instead of HFCS, while Yellow 6 and Red 40 are under fire.)
And today, Fanta is not just about the classic orange soda. When it comes to flavors, innovation is in full flow.
Depending on the market, you can find Fanta lemon, Fanta strawberry, Fanta grape, Fanta peach, Fanta pina colada, Fanta berry and more (UK soft drink favorite Lilt was rebranded as Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit in 2023).
As consumer preferences evolve, Fanta’s identity looks set to continue to shift around the world over the next 70 years.