Sunny Delight Beverages Company has slashed the sugar content of its Sunny D Florida Original by a further 12%, making it the only soft drink in the category to qualify for an amber traffic light, according to the company.

With 7.4g of sugar per 100ml, the improved Sunny D now contains 47% less sugar than rival brands, including Fruit Shoot, which has 14g of sugar per 100ml.

"Our aim is to offer mothers a choice," said commercial manager Paul Nicholls.

"The new product gives them a drink their children will like and they also have the reassurance that Sunny D has the lowest level of sugar in the category."

Since the company bought the juice drink from P&G in 2004, it has been working hard to get rid of the brand's unhealthy reputation. Last summer SDBC reformulated the basic range by removing vegetable oil and artificial thickeners and cutting the level of sugar to 25% less than rival juice drink brands.

This did not prevent Sunny D from crashing out of The Grocer's Top Products top 10 last year.

But the company said it was confident its fortunes would improve with this latest attempt, a precursor to an extensive brand relaunch in 2008, "which will be the culmination of the past three years' work", said Nicholls.