Household Ingredients Compared  ›  Soft Drinks and Cola (Singapore)

Soft drinks and cola: what's actually in it?

Most carbonated soft drinks on a Singapore shelf are built from the same short kit: carbonated water, a sweetener, an acid, a colour and flavourings. What changes between products is which sweetener (sugar, or a blend of sugar plus sweeteners, or sweeteners only), which acid (phosphoric acid in cola, citric acid in lemon-lime and fruit sodas), whether caffeine is added, and which colour is used (caramel colour in cola, no colour or a fruit colour in clear sodas). The front of the can rarely makes the sweetener split clear; the ingredient list does.

This page covers carbonated soft drinks and cola sold in Singapore — Coca-Cola, Pepsi, F&N, Sprite, 7UP, Schweppes, A&W, Fanta, Sinalco, Kickapoo and parallel-imported colas and sodas — including zero/diet/light variants as separate rows, because their lists differ. It does not cover isotonic sports drinks, energy drinks, tonic/soda water sold as mixers in a separate sense (Schweppes soda/tonic are listed here as seen-but-not-verified because they sit on the same carbonated shelf), juice drinks, or RTD tea/coffee — those have their own pages. This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick.

The headline, in 30 seconds

• Only one Coca-Cola variant panelled here is sugar-only. Coca-Cola Classic lists carbonated water, sucrose, caramel colour, phosphoric acid, flavourings and caffeine — no sweeteners.
• "Less Sugar" still starts with sugar. Coca-Cola Original Taste Less Sugar lists sugar second, then adds acesulfame potassium and sucralose — it is a sugar-plus-sweetener blend, not a zero-sugar drink. Its sugars are 4.6 g per 100 ml on the Singapore brand site, against 10.6 g for Classic.
• Zero Sugar and Light are sweetener-only colas. Both list no sugar; both use sucralose and acesulfame potassium, with sodium benzoate as preservative and sodium citrate. Their lists are near-identical on the Singapore brand site — do not assume that means every market's Light/Zero is the same; the UK Zero Sugar Vanilla list, for example, uses aspartame instead, and is not panelled as an SG product here.
• Vanilla is a Less Sugar twin, not a Classic twin. Coca-Cola Vanilla on the Singapore brand site lists sucrose plus acesulfame potassium and sucralose, with the same 4.6 g sugars per 100 ml as Less Sugar.
• Pepsi, Sprite, 7UP, Schweppes, Fanta, F&N and A&W are NOT panelled in this pass. They were inventoried as on sale in Singapore, but no verbatim Singapore ingredient list was verified for any of them in the time available — the lists retrieved were from the Philippines, the UK, the USA, Thailand or Malaysia, or were generic range descriptions. They are all in seen-but-not-verified below, not hidden. This is the biggest gap on this page.
• Research limit, stated honestly (5–6 November 2026): after the first Coca-Cola / Pepsi / F&N searches, the web search service returned repeated rate-limit (429) errors and the page-fetch service did the same for a FairPrice product page. No further searches were retried in that pass. The panelled count below therefore reflects only what had already been verified — it is not a claim that only six soft drinks exist in Singapore, and it is not a claim that the other brands have no SG list anywhere. A second pass, plus SG pack photos, is needed before this page is anywhere near complete.

At a glance

Panelled with verbatim lists: 6 products. Seen-but-not-verified: 38 products/variants — see the list below. Pack-size variants of a panelled product (for example Coca-Cola Classic in 180 ml mini cans, 320 ml cans, 500 ml and 1.5 L bottles) are not counted as separate rows: they share the same formulation as listed, and only a pack check could prove otherwise.

Prices are deliberately not shown here: they change weekly and would go stale. This site compares ingredients only.

Cola — sugar-sweetened

Cola — reduced sugar

Cola — zero sugar

Lemon soda

Inventory — what was found on sale in Singapore (not panelled)

The following were inventoried as listed for sale/delivery in Singapore on 5–6 November 2026, from FairPrice category/search listings, Shopee Singapore and the searches above. Listing here means "found on a Singapore shelf/listing" only — none of these is panelled, for the verification reasons in seen-but-not-verified.

• FairPrice carbonated-drinks listings: Coca-Cola Classic / Less Sugar / Zero Sugar / Light / Vanilla (cans, mini cans, bottles, cases), Sprite Sparkling Lemon Lime (including Zero Sugar cans), Fanta Grape (bottle), F&N Sarsi, F&N Cool Ice Cream Soda, F&N Soda Water (Slim), Kickapoo Joy Bottle Drink, Saito Japan Classic Hiroshima Cola 330 ml, Tomarchio Organic Soft Drink Cola 4 × 275 ml.
• Shopee Singapore: F&N sparkling range (Soda, Tonic, Grape, Orange, Ice Cream Soda, Sarsi, 325 ml cans; also Grape / Ice Cream Soda / Zapple / Fruitade / Strawberry / Orange / Sarsi / A&W 325 ml cans), Coca-Cola Original Taste, Zero Sugar and Light cases.
• Other channels named in scope but not paginated in this pass: Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Siong, Don Don Donki, Mustafa, Meidi-Ya, Le Petit Depot, Little Farms, RedMart, Lazada Singapore and specialty/import grocers were not inventoried page-by-page for soft drinks in this pass — the rate limit stopped the search before that inventory could be run. Their shelves are therefore not claimed as checked for this category.

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

38 products/variants. Each needs a verbatim Singapore pack / Singapore retailer ingredient section / Singapore brand-site list before it can be panelled. A non-SG list found for it is noted where one was retrieved, and is not presented as the SG pack list.

1. Pepsi — regular cola (SG) — on sale in Singapore, but no SG list retrieved. Lists retrieved were Philippines (carbonated water, sugar, caramel colour, phosphoric acid, caffeine, acesulfame potassium, natural flavour, sucralose), German/Polish and US (high-fructose corn syrup) versions — all flagged non-SG, none panelled.
2. Pepsi Black / Pepsi Zero Sugar (SG) — no SG list retrieved; do not assume it matches the SG Coca-Cola Zero list.
3. Pepsi Max (SG, if listed) — no SG list retrieved.
4. Sprite — regular lemon-lime (SG) — FairPrice lists Sprite Sparkling Lemon Lime Bottle Drink; no SG ingredient list retrieved.
5. Sprite Zero Sugar (SG) — FairPrice lists 12 × 320 ml cans; no SG ingredient list retrieved.
6. 7UP — regular (SG) — no SG list retrieved in this pass.
7. 7UP Zero Sugar / 7UP Free (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
8. Schweppes Soda Water (SG) — F&N lists it on FairPrice; no SG ingredient list retrieved.
9. Schweppes Tonic Water (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
10. Schweppes Ginger Ale (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
11. Schweppes Bitter Lemon / Lemon (SG) — an Open Food Facts Singapore entry (barcode 8888196176912, countries sold: Singapore) lists a lemon soft drink with water, sucrose, lemon juice, sorbitol, flavourings, honey, sodium citrate, citric acid, ascorbic acid and natural colouring, but the brand/variant on that entry was not confirmed as Schweppes in the retrieved text — do not attribute it; needs a pack check.
12. Fanta Orange (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
13. Fanta Grape (SG) — FairPrice lists Fanta Bottle Drink Grape; no SG ingredient list retrieved. A non-SG list retrieved (carbonated water, sugar, flavouring, citric acid, preservative E211, colouring E122) is French-market wording — flagged non-SG, not panelled.
14. Fanta Fruit Punch / other Fanta flavours (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
15. F&N Orange (SG) — no flavour-specific SG list retrieved. A Malaysian generic F&N range list ("Carbonated Water, Sugar, Contains Acidity Regulator as allowed Food Conditioner, Preservatives, Flavouring Agents") exists but is a range summary, not a per-flavour SG pack list — not panelled.
16. F&N Grape (SG) — as for F&N Orange; no flavour-specific SG list retrieved.
17. F&N Ice Cream Soda / Cool Ice Cream Soda (SG) — FairPrice and Shopee list it; no flavour-specific SG list retrieved.
18. F&N Sarsi (SG) — FairPrice and Shopee list it; no SG list retrieved. An Open Food Facts world entry for F&N Sarsi is a Thai-language list — flagged non-SG, not panelled.
19. F&N Fruitade (SG) — Shopee lists it; no SG list retrieved.
20. F&N Strawberry (SG) — Shopee lists it; no SG list retrieved.
21. F&N Cherryade / Cheeky Cherryade (SG) — range listings mention it; no SG list retrieved.
22. F&N Ginger Ade / Ginger (SG) — Shopee lists a ginger variant; no SG list retrieved.
23. F&N Zapple (SG) — Shopee lists it; no SG list retrieved.
24. F&N Soda Water (SG) — FairPrice lists F&N Soda Water (Slim); no SG list retrieved.
25. F&N Tonic Water (SG) — Shopee sparkling-range listing mentions tonic; no SG list retrieved.
26. A&W Root Beer (SG) — Shopee F&N range listings include A&W; no SG ingredient list retrieved. US A&W lists differ by market — do not borrow one.
27. A&W Sarsaparilla / Cream Soda (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
28. Kickapoo Joy Juice (SG) — FairPrice lists Kickapoo Joy Bottle Drink; no SG ingredient list retrieved.
29. Sinalco Cola (SG) — parallel-import range; no SG list retrieved in this pass.
30. Sinalco Orange / Lemon (SG) — no SG list retrieved.
31. Saito Japan Classic Hiroshima Cola 330 ml (SG) — FairPrice lists it (Japan origin, Hassaku fruit juice); FairPrice publishes no ingredient section for it in the retrieved text — needs a pack check.
32. Tomarchio Organic Soft Drink Cola 4 × 275 ml (SG) — FairPrice lists it (organic); no ingredient list retrieved.
33. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Vanilla 330 ml (SG import) — Desertcart Singapore lists it, but its list is UK wording: carbonated water, colour (caramel E150d), phosphoric acid, sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame K), natural flavourings including caffeine, acidity regulator (sodium citrate) — aspartame, which the SG Zero Sugar list does not use. Flagged non-SG, not panelled as an SG product.
34. Coca-Cola Classic — other markets' lists — a Coca-Cola.com (Maldives) list and a UK list (sugar, colour E150d, phosphoric acid, natural flavourings including caffeine) agree in substance with the SG list but are not SG evidence; they are noted only as corroboration, not as the panel source.
35. Pepsi — Desertcart Singapore "Regular Cola" 24 × 330 ml — its list is UK Britvic wording (carbonated water, sugar, colour E150d, flavourings including caffeine, acid phosphoric acid, sweeteners acesulfame K, sucralose) — flagged non-SG, not panelled.
36. Other parallel-import colas/sodas at Donki, Meidi-Ya, Le Petit Depot, Mustafa, Lazada and Shopee — not inventoried in this pass (see research limit above); includes Japanese, Korean, Thai and European colas and sodas that appear on those shelves. Needs a shelf/pack pass.
37. House-brand colas/sodas (FairPrice / Giant / Sheng Siong / Cold Storage house brands) — not inventoried in this pass; needs a shelf pass.
38. Schweppes / F&N / Coca-Cola limited-edition and seasonal flavours (SG) — none inventoried as on sale at check time in this pass; if found on shelf, add as separate rows with the date checked.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the table are as sold, per 100 ml, from the Coca-Cola Singapore brand site. The brand-site page as fetched does not label a serving size in its text; the figures are presented here as per 100 ml because they match the per-100-ml scale (Classic 10.6 g sugars per 100 ml is the standard SG figure for Classic) — if a pack states a different basis, the pack takes precedence. Sugars here are total sugars as printed; for the sugar-sweetened rows they are added sugars (sucrose/sugar in the list), for the zero-sugar rows they are 0 g. No added-sugars figure is printed separately on these listings, so none is invented. No official Singapore Nutri-Grade was found printed on the Singapore brand-site text for any panelled product in this pass, so none is quoted from that source; the one Nutri-Grade note below is from a secondary source and is flagged as such — no grade has been assigned by this page.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: most Singapore packs list total sugars, not added sugars. A total-sugars figure is never labelled here as "added sugar". The ingredient list remains the evidence for added sugar (sucrose, sugar) versus sweeteners (sucralose, acesulfame potassium).

Open Food Facts is a community database and is flagged as secondary where used: the pack and the retailer nutrition section take precedence if they disagree. Figures marked "not stated" were not in the source retrieved; they are not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours.

Observed numbers, no verdict: Classic lists 10.6 g sugars per 100 ml; Less Sugar and Vanilla list 4.6 g; Zero Sugar and Light list 0 g. Sodium is 2 mg per 100 ml for Classic and Less Sugar, and 6 mg for Zero Sugar and Light, on the Singapore brand site. No per-100-ml nutrition panel was verified in this pass for Mountain Dew, so its row is "not stated" throughout rather than estimated.

Nutri-Grade — one secondary note, not a pack verification: an Open Food Facts entry for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 320 ml sold in Singapore lists "Nutrition Grade B" among its labels. That is a secondary-database label, not a grade read from an SG pack or the SG brand site in this pass, and no Nutri-Grade was found for Classic, Less Sugar, Light, Vanilla or Mountain Dew in the sources retrieved. No grade is assigned here; a pack photo is needed before any Nutri-Grade is quoted as printed for a specific product.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): no per-100-ml nutrition panel was verified in this pass for Mountain Dew, or for any of the 38 seen-but-not-verified products (Pepsi, Sprite, 7UP, Schweppes, Fanta, F&N flavours, A&W, Kickapoo, Sinalco, Saito, Tomarchio, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Vanilla). Their ingredient panels are unchanged; their nutrition figures are not estimated here.

How to read a soft-drink label — the jargon, in plain English

Carbonated water

Water with carbon dioxide dissolved in it — the fizz. It is the first ingredient in every panelled product here.

Sucrose / sugar

The same thing in these lists: ordinary sugar. "Sucrose" on the SG Coca-Cola lists and "sugar" on the FairPrice Less Sugar list are the same sweetener, not two different ones.

Acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K) / sucralose

Non-sugar sweeteners, used together in the SG Zero Sugar, Light, Less Sugar and Vanilla colas. They add sweetness without sugar; their presence is what makes a drink "less sugar" or "zero sugar" rather than sugar-free by dilution.

Phosphoric acid (E338)

The acid in cola. It gives cola its tartness and is listed as "phosphoric acid" or "acidity regulator (338)" depending on the market's labelling style.

Citric acid (E330)

The acid in lemon-lime and fruit sodas (for example Mountain Dew). It is the citrus acid, not the cola acid.

Caramel colour (E150d)

The brown colour in cola. It is a colouring, not a flavour — a clear cola would list no caramel colour.

Sodium benzoate (E211) / sodium citrate

In the SG Zero Sugar and Light lists: sodium benzoate is a preservative; sodium citrate is an acidity regulator / buffer. Neither is a sweetener.

E102 (tartrazine)

A yellow food colouring, listed in Mountain Dew. Its presence is the clearest marker that a drink is coloured, not just flavoured.

"Less Sugar" vs "Zero Sugar" vs "Light"

Three different claims. "Less Sugar" (SG Coca-Cola) still contains sugar plus sweeteners. "Zero Sugar" contains no sugar, only sweeteners. "Light" on the SG site is also zero-sugar with the same sweetener pair — the name does not tell you the list; the list does.

Nutri-Grade (Singapore)

Singapore's A–D grading for pre-packaged drinks, based on sugar and saturated-fat content. It applies to these drinks. A grade is only quoted here if it is actually found printed on an SG pack/listing for that product — it is never calculated or assigned by this page.

What this page is not

• Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. Sugar-sweetened, reduced-sugar and zero-sugar colas are different products, and this page does not rank them.
• Not a taste test, and not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
• Not complete. This is the thinnest panelled page in the set so far: only 6 products are panelled, and 38 inventoried products are unverified, because the research pass was cut short by search/fetch rate limits (see headline and sources). Pepsi, Sprite, 7UP, Schweppes, Fanta, F&N and A&W are all missing as panels for verification reasons, not hidden, and the Donki / Meidi-Ya / Mustafa / Giant / Sheng Siong / Cold Storage shelves were not paginated in this pass.

Sources and method

Checked 5–6 November 2026 from: Coca-Cola Singapore brand site (coca-cola.com/sg/en/brands/coca-cola) for Classic, Original Taste Less Sugar, Zero Sugar, Light and Vanilla — ingredients and nutrition; FairPrice ingredient sections for Coca-Cola Original Taste Less Sugar and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar (corroboration, origin Malaysia); FairPrice category/search listings for the Coca-Cola range, Sprite Zero Sugar, Fanta Grape, F&N Sarsi / Ice Cream Soda / Soda Water, Kickapoo, Saito Hiroshima Cola and Tomarchio Cola (inventory only — no ingredient sections retrieved for those); Open Food Facts Singapore for Coca-Cola Light (barcode 9555589200514) and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar (Nutrition Grade B label, secondary); Shopee Singapore listings for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar / Light cases and the F&N sparkling range (inventory and corroboration); Wai Yee Hong retailer listing for Mountain Dew (product of Singapore stated); Guan Chun Ding Singapore distributor listing for Coca-Cola Classic (corroboration). Research limit: after the first searches, browser.search and browser.open repeatedly returned 429 rate-limit errors on 5 November 2026; no further searches were retried in that pass. Full per-fact source list is in the accompanying research notes. Nutrition section added 5–6 November 2026: figures are standardised to per 100 ml where the source gives per-100 figures; per-serving-only figures are labelled as such and are not converted; sugars are total sugars as printed, not added sugars, unless the source states added sugars; salt = sodium × 2.5. Where a full pack list could not be verified, the product is in seen-but-not-verified instead of being panelled.