World Health Organisation calls on next UK government to tax confectionery
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been joined by British non-profit groups in calling on the next UK government to extend the sugar tax levied on drinks to apply to chocolates, biscuits and cakes, reports Neill Barston.
Under the present Conservative administration, the drinks levy that was put forward in 2015 has been hailed as having a positive influence in reducing sugar sales, and prompting manufacturers to reformulate many products to more healthier profiles.
But as the WHO asserted, this approach should now be adopted by the food sector, including within confectionery and snacks, given the failure of the UK government’s Public Health England voluntary industry scheme of targeting 20% sugar reduction across categories.
As previously reported by Confectionery Production, the scheme, introduced by the present Conservative government in 2018, the voluntary initiative fell significantly short of its objectives, only achieving a 3.5% cut in sugar rates within food groups. In fact, as revealed in the analysis of the performance of the scheme, some categories, including chocolate confectionery, actually registered an increase in level of sugar content during the five year period under the scope of the review from 2018.
Notably, the scheme received a significant pushback from manufacturers within the confectionery and snacks sector, who argued that the cost of reformulating was prohibitively expensive – leading from calls from health organisations to seek mandatory targets as with the drinks sugar tax.
Huge potential policy gains
As the WHO noted, analysis of the government-led scheme suggested that if the programme targets were met, average sugar consumption would fall by 1000–3600 g per person per year, with a resulting reduction in calorie intake capable of halting weight gain at a population level.
Significantly, this would have brought major savings to health services in its estimation – with the increased and healthier workforce believed to grow UK economic output by £2.2–5.7 billion, and save the National Health Service £1.6–4.1 billion and the social care system £1.9–4.8 billion.
In a stark assessment of progress on health policy, Katharine Jenner, Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, asserted that the UK had endured a ‘decade of failure from both government and industry’ in which the present voluntary systems had failed to deliver sustained change to help improve the nation’s health.
She urged the adoption of drinks levy that she believed had a positive effect on society without hitting drinks sales, with a noted reduction in hospital admissions for obesity, and a cut in tooth decay levels.
Plea to next government
The UK is set to hold a General election tomorrow (Thursday), with the main opposition party, Labour, having held consistent polling leads over the incumbent Conservative administration throughout the past year.
Health campaign group Action On Sugar urged whoever formed the next government to urgently put in place a health strategy placing mandatory sugar reduction within industry as a core principle.
Professor Graham MacGregor, Chair of health organisation Action on Sugar and Action on Salt commented: “Unhealthy food which contains too much salt, sugar and fat and lacks in fruit, vegetables and fibre is now the major cause of death in the world. The new government needs to control the food industry rather than being subservient to its profits.
“This requires reducing the huge and unnecessary amounts of salt, sugar and fat in these foods by setting targets for each food group that are legally enforceable. Otherwise, many hundreds of thousands of people will die unnecessarily from strokes, heart attacks and cancer.”
In an analysis of the present health policy over sugar reduction, Dr Kawther Hashem, Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at Queen Mary University of London, believed that policy needed to be tightened by the incoming UK government.
She said: “As the general election nears, our timely new research, published today in the WHO Bulletin, documents key policy actions for the next government to undertake to improve their work on sugar reduction. Procrastinating any further should not be an option.
“We mustn’t forget that unhealthy diets are the biggest cause of death and disability globally and costs the UK more than £100 billion annually. While the UK government has implemented several policies aimed at reducing sugar intake, including the soft drinks industry levy and the sugar reduction programme, this latest analysis shows additional improvements can still be made to both policies to enhance their wider impact.
“This includes increasing the levy, reducing the sugar content threshold in the soft drinks industry levy, and setting more stringent subcategory specific targets in the sugar reduction programme. Policymakers are also urged to consider applying a similar levy to other discretionary products that are key contributors to sugar intake, such as chocolate confectionary, to shift diets towards a healthier direction.”
Parents struggle with health choices
In addition according to a recent study, nearly eight in 10 parents (76%) are finding it harder, not easier, when it comes to promoting healthy eating habits with their children.
That’s according to comprehensive polling of over 2,000 parents conducted by Savanta and the Children’s Food Campaign at Sustain to help determine the biggest challenges faced by parents in the current food system and their top priorities for change.
While most parents (88%) prioritise their children eating healthily, more than two thirds worry about what their children are actually eating and say it’s challenging getting their kids to eat healthily. From cost-of-living pressures to food marketing and labelling, the research highlights multiple issues that make parents’ job harder, and where further policies are needed to support them.
The expansion of healthy school meals is the number one policy backed by 86% of parents in the poll who overwhelmingly want all children to be able to access healthy meals without stigma, as well as experience the joys of learning about and eating tasty, nutritious school meals, fuelling their learning success.