Study Finds Decline in Daily Sugar Intake After Implementation of UK Sugar Tax
By the end of the first year of the sugar tax roll-out, daily sugar consumption also fell by 5g in children.
The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, analysed 11 years of survey data (2008-2019) from the annual nationally representative UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey.
The survey captured information on food consumption, nutrition, and nutrient intake from 7,999 adults and 7,656 children.
The levy was found to be particularly effective in limiting the consumption of sugary drinks, with a drop in their consumption estimated to be responsible for half of the sugar reduction (3g in children and 5g in adults).
And the consumption of free sugars (any sugar added to sweetened foods and drinks, and also found naturally in fruit juices and syrups) fell by 10 per cent in children and 20 per cent in adults.
However, daily energy intake from free sugars is still higher than the 5 per cent recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This equates to 30g a day for adults, 24g for those aged seven to 10, and 19g for children aged four and six.
For children, cereal, soft drinks, and fruit juice are the biggest contributors to free sugars. But for adults, the largest sources of free sugars are sugar, preserves, confectionary and non-alcoholic drinks.
Co-author, Dr Oliver Mytton (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), said: “This is part of a series of studies showing the impacts of the soft drinks levy. These seemingly average changes can lead to valuable changes in health at the population level.
“In other work, we have linked the introduction of the tax to reductions in obesity, dental caries, and asthma admissions in children.”
The UK government introduced a two-tier sugar tax on soft drinks in April 2018. It added 24p per litre to drinks with the highest sugar content (over 8g) and 18p per litre to those will a lesser amount (between 5g and 8g). Meanwhile, zero-sugar, ‘diet’ drinks and unsweetened juices were unaffected.
At the start of the study (2008), children consumed about 70g of added sugars daily, which dropped to 45g by the end, a 9.7% reduction compared to expected levels without the sugar tax. For adults, intake went from 60g to 45g per day, a 19.8% reduction. Protein intake remained stable throughout the study.
To date, more than 50 countries have introduced a sugar tax on these drinks in a bid to persuade manufacturers to reformulate their products.