Grapefruit lemonade: sugar, guidelines and alternatives

Tart, fresh, slightly bitter: for many, grapefruit lemonade is the grown-up version of fizzy drinks. But what actually makes a lemonade a lemonade, how much sugar does it typically contain – and is there such a thing as grapefruit lemonade with no sugar? There’s also a fact that many people aren’t aware of: grapefruit can alter the effects of medication.

What is lemonade?

In Germany, the guidelines for soft drinks set out in the German Food Codex describe what is generally understood to be a lemonade. According to the revised version dated 10 April 2024, lemonades must contain at least flavouring extracts or natural fruit or plant flavourings, water and ‘ingredients to impart a sweet taste (e.g. sugars, sweeteners)’.

Previously, a minimum sugar content of 7 per cent applied. This rule has been removed in the revised version, meaning that soft drinks containing less sugar may also be called ‘lemonade’; the Food Codex itself is not a statutory requirement, but rather describes the generally accepted definition. In the case of low-calorie soft drinks, the added sugar may be partially or entirely replaced by sweeteners.

If a lemonade contains fruit, it must contain at least half the fruit content that is standard for fruit juice drinks. For fruit juice drinks made from citrus fruits, the guidelines specify a minimum of 6 per cent by weight.

How much sugar is there in grapefruit lemonade?

That depends on the product – the list of ingredients and the nutrition facts table will tell you. A market survey carried out by the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre in 2026 provides some guidance: sweetened soft drinks in cans or cartons contained between 4.3 and 11 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, or between 14 and 44 grams per pack. Even drinks marketed as ‘flavoured water’ contained an average of 2.3 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres in a market survey by the Saxony-Anhalt Consumer Advice Centre.

To put this into context: the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends limiting free sugars to less than 10 per cent of daily energy intake, or ideally to under 5 per cent – around 25 grams. German professional bodies calculate that 10 per cent of a 2,000-kilocalorie diet equates to a maximum of 50 grams of free sugars; this also includes the sugar found in fruit juices. A 330-millilitre can containing 11 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres would therefore already contain around 36 grams.

No sugar grapefruit lemonade: what should you look out for?

A drink may only be labelled ‘sugar-free’ if it contains no more than 0.5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres; ‘no added sugar’, on the other hand, does not mean that the product contains no sugar at all. If a fizzy drink is sugar-free yet still sweet, the sweetness usually comes from sweeteners – as shown in the list of ingredients. The overview ‘Sweeteners from erythritol to aspartame’ explains what these individual substances are.

Anyone who wants neither sugar nor sweetener will inevitably end up with a drink that does not taste sweet. According to the guidelines, this is then no longer a lemonade, but a soft drink: The name is supplemented by the flavour, and if fruit is depicted on the packaging but only flavourings are used, it will say ‘flavoured with …’. Flavoured waters are also legally classified as soft drinks and not as mineral water.

Grapefruit and Medicines

Grapefruit contains furanocoumarins. Eating grapefruit or drinking its juice can cause higher levels of the active ingredient to enter the bloodstream when taken with certain medicines – leading to “sometimes serious side effects”, as aponet.de, the portal of the pharmacists’ associations, reports. The Pharmazeutische Zeitung describes these interactions as potentially life-threatening in some cases, and the effect can last for many hours.

Grapefruit isn’t always what it’s made out to be: a US study found drinks containing grapefruit that did not include the word in their product names. Anyone taking medication should therefore check the ingredients list and ask at the chemist’s whether grapefruit in any form – including as a flavouring – should be avoided.

Pink or white: what’s the difference?

According to the South Tyrol Consumer Advice Centre, the grapefruit is a spontaneous hybrid of a pomelo and an orange; its name (‘grape fruit’) comes from the fact that the fruits grow in dense clusters on the tree. Pink varieties are milder and sweeter than yellow ones. Furthermore, according to the South Tyrol Consumer Advice Centre, pink grapefruits are among the foods that are particularly rich in lycopene.

Grapefruit flavour with no sugar or sweetener

Our Pink Grapefruit variety is therefore explicitly not a lemonade: it contains water, carbon dioxide, natural grapefruit flavouring and citric acid as an acidifier – no sugar, no sweetener and no grapefruit juice, with 1 kcal per 100 millilitres. It tastes of grapefruit, but isn’t sweet. If you’re taking medication, please check with your chemist to ensure that the grapefruit flavouring is safe for you. You can find out more about drinks with no sugar and no sweetener under ‘Drinks without sugar and without sweetener’.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. German Food Codex Commission: Guidelines for Soft Drinks, revised version of 10 April 2024 (BAnz AT 16 May 2024 B3), 10 April 24. deutsche-lebensmittelbuch-kommission.de
2. Lebensmittel Praxis: Sugar debate – minimum sugar content for soft drinks scrapped, 28 May 24. lebensmittelpraxis.de
3. NRW Consumer Advice Centre: Soft drinks – a sugar trap, 30 July 26. verbraucherzentrale.nrw
4. Saxony-Anhalt Consumer Advice Centre: Market review of vitamin-enriched water, 8 July 26. cdn.verbraucherzentrale.de
5. WHO: WHO calls on countries to reduce sugar intake among adults and children, 4 March 2015. who.int
6. DAG, DDG and DGE: Quantitative recommendations on sugar intake in Germany (summary), 2018. kindergesundheit.de
7. Bavarian Consumer Advice Centre: All Sugar – or What?, as at 09/23. verbraucherzentrale.bayern
8. aponet.de: Grapefruit affects medication, 11 August 2022. aponet.de
9. Pharmazeutische Zeitung: Grapefruit juice – no risk of drug interactions?, 28 January 25. pharmazeutische-zeitung.de
10. Apotheken Umschau: Grapefruit: A special citrus fruit, 25 July 2023. apotheken-umschau.de
11. Auten et al., Hospital Pharmacy 48(6): ‘Hidden Sources of Grapefruit in Beverages’, 2013. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
12. South Tyrol Consumer Advice Centre: Grapefruit and pomelo – what’s the difference?, 6 March 2017. consumer.bz.it
13. Consumer Advice Centre: Lycopene: No evidence of its effectiveness as a dietary supplement, 26 August 26. verbraucherzentrale.de