Exclusive: Co-author of analysis for WHO calls on government to control the food industry rather than being subservient to it

The sugar tax has been so successful in improving people’s diets that it should be extended to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, health experts say.

The World Health Organization wants the next UK government to expand coverage of the levy to help tackle tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other illnesses.

The plea is published in the WHO’s bulletin, which urges governments worldwide to use the reformulation of food to address the growing crisis of excess weight.

Experts from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have analysed the outcomes of two flagship government policies intended to make food healthier – the sugar tax and sugar reduction programme, which were introduced in 2018 and 2015 respectively.

The levy on the soft-drinks industry led to a 34.3% fall in total sugar sales from such products between 2015 and 2020 and many fizzy drinks containing much less.

But the sugar reduction programme only yielded a 3.5% drop over the same period in the amount of sugar used in the manufacture of the everyday foodstuffs it covered, the experts write in their analysis for the WHO.

Dr Kawther Hashem, a co-author and lecturer in public health nutrition at QMUL, said ministers should trial a sugar tax-style levy on treat foods that still have almost as much sugar as they did as 2015 despite firms being asked to cut sugar by 20% before 2020.

  • HumanPenguinEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    LOL I have temped in a UK orange juice factory. Believe me your sanity depends on what you dont know.

    As for fruit juice and sugar. My comment makes things look more all juice then I intended.

    We tend to sell a few different forms. Pure Juice tends to come in cardboard (plastic coated) tubs of a litre or more. Pure is literal in the name. So no added sugar. It also need to be refrigerated and only lasts weeks. But honestly nattural juice has a sugar called fructos that works pretty well on low blood sugar. Way higher in actual carb grams then modern sodas like coke. But way less then the old pre tax amount.

    We also have Juices made from concentrated juice with water and sugar added. During the concentration process it is heated to remove most of the water. Then shipped to factories. Here purified boiled water ands sugar is added.

    This leads to a juice that can sit on a shelf without refrigeration for years. Both will work when grabbed in a hurry. But as the reconstituted from concentrate juices have from 8 to 12g of sugar carbs per 100 ml you tend to need less. Making it actually better to carry on a summer day. Old coke full sugar was about the same.

    Modern cola is about 4 to 5g per 100ml. Although I have just discovered Coke has started selling Coke Original Taste Brand with 10.6g per 100ml. So looks like they have decided people will pay a bit more after all.

    In sainsbury’s it £5.20 for 8 330ml cans where Diet coke is £4.99 so the tax is far from huge.