Health experts say the sugar tax has been so effective in improving people’s diets that it should be extended to include cakes, biscuits and chocolate.
The World Health Organisation has called on the next UK government to expand the tax to tackle tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other diseases.
The plea, published in the WHO’s official gazette, urges governments around the world to reformulate foods to tackle the growing crisis of excess weight.
Experts from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) analysed the results of two flagship government policies aimed at making food healthier: the Sugar Tax and the Sugar Reduction Programme, introduced in 2018 and 2015 respectively.
Taxes on the soft drinks industry led to a 34.3% fall in total sugar sales in soft drinks between 2015 and 2020, and the amount of sugar in many carbonated drinks has been significantly reduced.
But the sugar reduction programme only reduced the amount of sugar used in producing targeted everyday foods by 3.5 percent over the same period, experts said in their analysis for WHO.
Dr Kawsar Hashem, a lecturer in public health nutrition at the University of Queensland Medical College and co-author, said ministers should try to impose a sugar tax-like levy on sweets, which still contain roughly the same amount of sugar as in 2015, despite calls for companies to reduce sugar by 20% by 2020.
This could be the case for three products, according to figures from the Government’s Department for Health Improvement and Disparities. The sugar content was only slightly reduced Hashem said chocolate sales were down 0.9 percent, biscuits down 3.1 percent and cakes down 3.2 percent.
It could also be used to reduce the amount of sugar in sweetened, milk-based drinks like Frappuccinos, milkshakes and bubble tea, she added.
“Given the proven success of soft drink industry taxes in encouraging product innovation, we encourage policymakers to consider applying similar taxes to other discretionary products that are major contributors to sugar intake,” the analysis said.
Studies have shown that sugar taxes have helped reduce obesity among teenage girls and cut the number of children admitted to hospital with tooth decay.
The authors include Graham McGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Queensland Medical College, who also runs health research and campaigning organisations Action on Sugar and Action on Salt.
“Unhealthy food – too much salt, sugar and fat, and not enough fruit, vegetables and fibre – is now the leading cause of death around the world. The new government must take control of the food industry rather than be subservient to its products,” McGregor said.
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Legal limits on salt, sugar and fat would force manufacturers to make healthier products, reducing the incidence of strokes, heart attacks and cancers often linked to unhealthy diets, he said.
Katherine Jenner, chief executive of the Obesity Health Alliance, said “more than a decade of failure by both government and industry” to change eating habits meant ministers needed to move from asking companies to voluntarily boost the nutritional value of their products to forcing them to do so through taxes such as a sugar tax.
She also backed calls from experts for ministers to reduce sugar in food for babies and young children.
“Supporting healthy eating habits in infancy and early childhood by removing sugar from commercial baby foods is a great first step. There is a misconception that baby foods such as pouches and snacks are already more highly regulated than other foods. Nutritionally, the opposite is true.”
“These products are often very high in sugar but carry misleading labels and health claims that lead parents to believe they are healthier than they actually are.”
The Department of Health and Human Services said it could not comment as a general election was underway.
