Minister backs sugar tax: Tesco to reduce sugar in drinks
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- Published: Thursday, 04 June 2015 07:46
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George Freeman, the Life Sciences Minister at the Department of Health, has warned that sugary foods may have to be taxed to cover the costs of treating obesity. In a separate announcement Tesco has committed to reducing sugar across its entire drinks range. From next year, its own-brand drinks will contain 5 per cent less sugar each year for the foreseeable future.
Mr Freeman was speaking at the Hay Festival and said that it was clear that sugary drinks and snacks were behind the worsening obesity epidemic in Britain. “I don’t think heavy-handed legislation is the way to go,” he said, “But I think that where there is a commercial product which confers costs on all of us as a society, as in sugar, and where we can clearly show that the use of that leads to huge pressures on social costs, then we could be looking at recouping some of that through taxation. Companies should know that if you insist on selling those products, we will tax them.”
Prof Graham MacGregor, the chairman of Action on Sugar, said: “We are very much in favour of a sugar tax and we welcome Mr Freeman’s words. The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, can no longer ignore the fact that current nutrition policy whereby the food industry is allowed to police itself is, unsurprisingly, not working.” He added: “We are delighted that Tesco has agreed that this is exactly the sort of action that we need and all other retailers must follow suit.”
The Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) welcomes Tesco’s plans to remove all added sugar from its own-label children’s drinks and cut sugar levels across all of its own-label fizzy drinks. A progressive reduction in the sugar content of food and drinks represents the most effective way to help tackle obesity and dental caries in children and young adults.
The Faculty of General Dental Practice has supported Action on Sugar’s campaign to reduce sugar levels in the UK to less than 5% of total energy intake by working with food manufacturers and suppliers. Dr Paul Batchelor, Vice Dean Elect of the FGDP(UK) and an Advisor in Dental Public Health, says, “This is a positive step by a major food supplier in efforts to deal with the growing problem of obesity and dental caries in the UK population. Tooth decay remains a significant health concern in the UK and it is imperative that we work to achieve consensus on dietary sugar reduction. The plans announced by Tesco today, together with similar initiatives from other supermarkets, mark a step towards helping to reduce morbidity and the burden of disease in the UK. We encourage all producers to act together in bringing about the urgent changes needed in the formulation of food and drink, and we would expect to see further initiatives after the SACN publishes its final recommendations later this year.”
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