Sugar tax significantly cut consumption in children and adults, Cambridge and UCL study finds

The sugar tax imposed on soft drinks in Britain led to a significant drop in the amount of sugar in people’s diets, according to a long-term study involving the University of Cambridge.

One year after it came into force, children were consuming 4.8g per day less sugar, while adults’ intake had dropped by 10.9g.

Most of this drop was down to consumption of less sugar from soft drinks – slashing 3g off children’s daily sugar consumption and 5g off that of adults.

However, people are still eating too much sugar overall, the researchers found, and are not meeting UK or World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

The type of sugars most adults and children in the UK eat too much of are known as “free sugars”.

A major source is fizzy drinks, but other foods with added free sugar include biscuits, chocolate, flavoured yoghurts and breakfast cereal.

Sugar in honey, syrups, unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies occurs naturally but also counts as free sugars.

Previous research has linked sugary drinks to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and premature death.

In the UK, the sugar tax was introduced in April 2018 and was a way of encouraging manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of soft drinks. Under it, manufacturers pay 18p per litre on drinks that have a total sugar content of 5g to under 8g per 100ml, or 24p per litre on drinks that have a total sugar content of 8g or more per 100ml.

For the new study, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, experts including from the University of Cambridge and University College London looked at data from 2008 to 2019 to explore sugar trends over time.

Overall, 7,999 adults and 7,656 children were included in the final analysis.

The experts concluded the sugar tax “led to significant reductions in dietary free sugar consumption in children and adults”.

They said the energy people got from free sugar as a percentage of total energy did not change, indicating that calories from free sugar were dropping at the same time as a decline in overall calorie intake.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government would “prevent ill-health and tackle the obesity crisis head on”, adding: “We will introduce tight restrictions on advertising junk food, alongside banning children from being able to purchase sugary, high caffeine energy drinks. By building a healthier society, we will help to build a healthy economy.”

Guidelines from the WHO and the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition say people should limit free sugar consumption to below five per cent of their total energy intake.

This is equivalent to daily maximum amounts of 30g for adults, 24g for children aged seven to 10 and 19g for young children aged four to six.

To date, more than 50 countries have introduced a sugar tax on soft drinks.