Clash of opinions over effectiveness of sugar tax
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- Published: Thursday, 23 January 2020 07:50
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During Sugar Awareness Week (January 20-26) different opinions have emerged over the effectiveness of the so-called sugar tax. Writing in inews, Tom Bawden said that the tax ‘drives sharp decrease in sweetness of soft drinks.’ But from the Spectator, Kate Andrews says ‘the sugar tax is only a success if you ignore the evidence.
The case FOR the sugar tax
The inews article, based on a study published in the journal BMC Medicine, claimed that the sugar tax on soft drinks had revolutionised the industry, with the average beverage now 28 per cent less sugary than before the tax was introduced. Drinks makers have slashed the sugar content on many of their existing brands and introduced new, low-sugar alternatives after the government introduced tiered taxes of between 18 and 24p a litre in April 2018.
Researchers looked at a range of carbonated drinks, concentrates, juices, energy and sports drinks and bottled water. They found that eight of the ten biggest drinks manufacturers, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi-maker Britvic, had reduced the sugar content of their drinks by at least 15 per cent after a new sugar tax on soft drinks was announced in 2016 and introduced in April 2018. Most of the reduction is due to drinks makers reformulating their existing products to make them less sweet and introducing new, lower-sugar beverages.
The annual UK soft drink consumption increased by seven per cent to 8.9 billion litres in the four years until the end of 2018, equivalent to just over a third of a litre a day per person. But because of the changing drinks’ content and consumption patterns, the nation’s total soft drink sugar intake tumbled by 29 per cent over the period - as those drinks covered by the new taxes fell from 31 per cent to 15 per cent of soft drink consumption.
John Maingay, director of policy at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, said:"It’s very encouraging to see the positive impact the levy is having in reducing the sugar content of soft drinks. However, children are still consuming more than twice the maximum sugar allowance."
The British Heart Foundation is calling for the soft drinks sugar tax to be extended to include sweetened milk-based drinks such as chocolate milk and milkshakes. When taxes were introduced in April 2018 on sugary soft drinks flavoured milk drinks such as chocolate milk and other milk-based beverages were excluded.
The case AGAINST the sugar tax
The sugar tax is only a ‘success’ if you ignore the evidence, writes Kate Andrews in the Spectator. Speaking of the i report (above) she says that while the study may be ‘new’, the figures are not. They were published by Public Health England last September, which noted that the 28.8 per cent decrease in sugar content was largely a result of companies reformulating their products (prioritising sugar reduction over taste) to avoid the levy.
“Given what we know about the data released by PHE, and the trends of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption over the past few decades, claims that the sugar tax has been proven successful remain rather dubious,” she continues. “Sugary drinks consumption has been on the decline for years. People’s desire to cut back on their fizzy drink intake was prevalent long before the sugar tax was introduced. Both before and after its implementation, we’ve seen an overall decrease in consumption, yet an increase in obesity.
“This should come as no surprise,” she claims. “In line with sugar taxes around the world, it has not meaningfully worked anywhere it has been implemented. Far from reversing obesity trends in the UK, the levy’s achievements thus far have only been regressive in nature.”
She concludes: “But if we’re looking for successes, the sugar tax can be credited with one achievement. Despite recent efforts to spam healthy-living guidance and awareness campaigns across the UK, PHE’s analysis actually shows a small uptick in sugar consumption in certain product categories: “a 0.5 per cent increase in sugar purchased per person” with people showing a sweet-tooth preference for ice cream and chocolate in particular. And as the graph above shows, purchase of SSBs also rose in 2018, despite the sugar tax coming into force that April.
“Even factoring in the sugar reduction in certain soft drinks, this seems like a straightforward case of failed public policy. The sugar tax has not remotely tackled the issue of obesity it set out to address. It has also arguably contributed to the cost of living crisis. That today’s headlines deem the policy a ‘success’ is beyond the pale.”
Link to inews.co.uk article
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/sugar-tax-working-milkshakes-soft-drinks-food-industry-1362928
Link to Spectator article
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/the-sugar-tax-is-only-a-success-if-you-ignore-the-evidence/
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