Six years ago, the UK introduced a tax on sugary drinks. It was a great idea.

Taxes are one of the resources available to states to reduce the consumption of some more or less harmful foods without going so far as to ban them. The logic behind taxes on substances such as tobacco and alcohol has been applied to products such as sugary drinks in countries such as the United Kingdom. Everything seems to indicate that it has been successful.

Half of consumption. A study published this summer found that the introduction of a tax on sugary drinks was accompanied by a significant reduction in the consumption of sugars by children.

According to estimates, consumption has been reduced by around 4.8 grams of sugar per day. In the case of adults, the difference is even greater in terms of daily consumption: 11 grams less sugar.

If we take into account sugars from sugary drinks, the reduction in consumption is 3 grams in the case of minors (which implies a 23.5% reduction in consumption) and about 5 g in the case of adults (40.5% less).

Far from the recommendations. The team responsible for the study warnsHowever, the levels of consumption of “free sugars” are still higher than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization. These recommendations put the maximum daily consumption at 30 grams per day for adults, 24 g/day for children between 7 and 10 years old, and 19 g/day for children between 4 and 6 years old.

Tax on sugary drinks. The subject of the study was the tax imposed by the British government on sugary drinks. The tax was announced in 2016 and came into force in April 2018. The SDIL tax (Soft Drinks Industry Levy) consists of 0.24 pounds for those drinks with more than 8 g of sugar per 100 ml and 0.18 pounds for those drinks with between 5 and 8 g of sugar per 100 ml.

National survey. The team responsible for the study compared the period before the announcement of the measure with the year after its introduction. To model the impact, they used survey data UK National Diet and Nutrition Surveywhich covered the period between 2008 and 2019.

They thus obtained information on the consumption of these drinks by a group of 7,999 adults and 7,656 minors. The details of the study were: described in an article in the magazine Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Is this a real total drop? One of the issues raised by the team behind the study is the potential substitution effect. That is, the tax may greatly reduce our consumption of sugars from sugary drinks, but it would do little good if we replaced them with sugars from other foods. The new study seems to indicate the opposite: there is no such substitution effect.

Long-term trend. Another important issue the team monitored was the long-term trend. The team observed a downward trend in consumption of these drinks in the period from 2008 onwards. It is therefore worth emphasising that the results took into account this trend caused by factors external to the British tax.

At Xataka | The tax on sugary drinks is a good idea (although, on its own, it is not enough)

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