Extend sugar tax to biscuits and cereals, says government adviser
The Guardian | Denis Campbell Health policy editor | 19 March 2016
Prof Ivo Vlaev says all products containing excess sugar should be taxed to prevent consumers switching to substitutes
Answering questions at the conclusion of a European council summit in Brussels on Friday, David Cameron brushed off suggestions that the levy could be extended to chocolate.
The prime minister said: “Those are the proposals we have brought forward. If we wanted to bring forward other proposals we would have done – we didn’t, we brought forward the sugary drinks proposal, and that is the right one in my view.”
Under the proposals, a levy will be applied on tax soft drinks containing five grams of sugar per 100ml and a higher fee on those that have at least 8g. But the IFS believes “a more sensible schedule would be a constant or increasing tax per gram of sugar”.
Prof Graham MacGregor, chairman of Action on Sugar, backed Vlaev. “We should tax all the things that sugar is in to an unhealthy degree, such as breakfast cereals that have large an unnecessary amount of sugar in them,” he said.
“Sugar-sweetened drinks are an obvious first target of the tax. But if the government wants to reduce sugar consumption across the board, it should tax sugar in the same way in any product.
“Clearly where there is unnecessary sugar in any food product it would be a good idea to tax it to encourage manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in it and thereby cut calories,” added MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular health at Queen Mary University of London.
