UK levy: what the sugar tax has brought about

Since 2018, there has been a tax on high-sugar drinks such as cola and lemonade in Great Britain. This should encourage manufacturers to reduce the sugar content – and help against obesity. With success?

Many Britons love soft drinks, but many Britons also weigh too much. This is exactly where the UK sugar tax, which came into effect in April 2018, comes into play.

Officially it’s called the “Soft Drinks Industry Levy” – it’s a tax that soft drink manufacturers have to pay for drinks with a high sugar content. Taxation is staggered: from five grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, the tax is 18 pence per liter (equivalent to 21 euro cents), from eight grams of sugar, 24 pence per liter are due.

“Action on Sugar” campaigns for just such government intervention. The organization consists of doctors and scientists who warn of the negative consequences of excessive sugar consumption. The tax is helpful, says Action on Sugar spokeswoman Mhairi Brown: “The sugar tax has had a huge impact. This strategy has been really successful in the UK. It’s a great incentive for drink manufacturers to reduce sugar levels, to avoid the tax.”

“Quengelware” no longer allowed in supermarkets

A Cambridge University study suggests that the sugar tax has reduced obesity among 10- and 11-year-old girls by 8 percent. In other words, the tax would have prevented more than 5,200 obesity cases per year in this age group.

The sugar tax is just part of a whole package with which the government wants to tackle obesity. Since last autumn, supermarkets are no longer allowed to place “Quengelware” at the checkout.

And from October of this year there should no longer be any lure offers for “junk food”. Among other things, this involves offers such as “Buy one, get one free”, where, for example, if you buy a bar of chocolate, you get another one for free. According to experts, offers of this kind almost double the consumption of chocolate.

Advertising ban postponed

So far, however, there has been no breakthrough in the field of advertising. It was planned that unhealthy food could only be advertised on television after 9 p.m. and no longer online at all. However, this law has now been postponed to October 2025. Brown is outraged: “It’s really shocking. That would have been a milestone.”

Mhairi believes that the reasoning that the food industry needs more time to prepare is a sham. She thinks the government has caved in to the lobbyists.

Henry Dimbleby thinks so too. Author of several cookbooks and co-founder of the Leon fast-food chain, he was until recently an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. He was supposed to help fight the obesity but has now given up. He accuses the government of failure.

Almost two-thirds of adults weigh too much

“Winston Churchill called a nation’s health its greatest asset. The role of governments is to intervene to solve problems. But the modern conservative ideology is that you can let anything go without ever intervening,” says Dimbleby. “It will hurt the country a lot if that doesn’t change.”

Dimbleby is certain that gigantic costs are rolling towards the British healthcare system. In England, almost one in four children aged 10 to 11 is now obese, making a total of 38 percent of this age group overweight – compared to 64 percent of adults.