La Casera joins Free-sugar Drink market, Unveils Latina

In what could be best described as an innovation in the Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) category in the Nigerian market, the La Casera Company Limited has unveiled a new sugar-free fruit drink named ‘Latina’ to the consumers.

The new Latina sugar-free fruit drink is available in two fruit variants – Latina Real Spanish Pear Fruit Drink and Latina Real Fruit Cocktail Drink, according to the company, are duly approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and certified as a quality product by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

According to the company, Latina sugar-free fruit drink is a unique product in the carbonated soft drink market being the first CSD drink with real fruit juice content.

Speaking at the launch event in Lagos recently, Prahlad Gangadharan, chief operating officer of the company, described the launch of the drink as a new chapter in the CSD category in Nigeria, offering consumers more options to ensure all consumers have a product that suit their lifestyle.

To Gangadharan, “Latina is a sugar-free fruit drink which contains real fruit juice. With less than 1 calorie per bottle, and a minimum of 5 percent juice in every 50cl bottle. Latina offers consumers a combination of refreshment, wellbeing and vivacity.”

The representative of the director-general of the NAFDAC, who is also the acting director, registration and regulatory affairs of the agency, Ogochukwu Mainasara, disclosed that the regulatory body had certified Latina sugar-free fruit drink as a quality product having verified all the claims by the manufacturer through series of laboratory investigations.

Mainasara said: “When we say sugar-free, it means there is no sugar, it contains the real fruit juice but the sugar has been removed and a non-nutritive sweetener is added. And when we say non-nutritive, we have checked, we have confirmed, it is good. It has the GRAS status which means Generally Recognised As Safe.”

In her own remarks while performing the official unveiling of the product, the deputy-director, SON, Oluremi Ayeni, stated that Latina like every other brand from the stable of the La Casera Company was of high quality.