FANTA and Oasis fans are furious after McDonald’s switched to sugar-free versions of the drinks.
It said the move, in all its UK restaurants, would offer customers “more balanced choices”.
But one angry classic Fanta fan said on X/Twitter: “How dare McDonald’s dictate what drinks I have or don’t.”
Another said: “Please keep Oasis full sugar, this zero s**t is stealing my happiness.”
But health campaigners like Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, welcomed the initiative, which will result in 2,515 tons of sugar being removed from McDonald’s menu annually.
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He said: “Hopefully we will soon have a population who will only drink zero sugar or low sugar drinks and the sugary versions will soon be a thing of the past.
“There will be a lot of people who won’t like this as they adore their sugary drinks, but the removal of sugar will make a great number of people healthier.”
A medium portion of Fanta Orange contains 18g of sugar and 76 calories, while the zero version contains just 4 calories.
The same size Oasis contains 17g of sugar and 67 calories, but the Summer Fruits Zero has 2g of sugar and 12 calories.
The chain says it will continue to sell Coca-Cola Classic, containing 42g of sugar.
McDonald’s said: “As part of our ongoing commitment to offer our customers more balanced choices, we started transitioning from Fanta Orange and Oasis Summer Fruits to Fanta Orange Zero and Oasis Zero Summer Fruits across all restaurants in the UK and Ireland from September.
“Restaurants will clearly display signage when the changes are taking place, and we will continue to provide options such as Coca-Cola Classic and Irn-Bru (Scotland only).