Higher taxes on sugary drinks have been shown in the UK, according to a study by the University of Oxford effect.
In the fight against Overweight and obesity was introduced in the United Kingdom to 2018, the so-called soda tax.
For drinks that contain more than five grams of added sugar per 100 millilitres, you must pay the manufacturers since then, an additional tax, the so-called Soft Drink Industry Lecy,.
With more than eight grams of the levy is further increased.
By Limo-control: proportion of Sugar to 35 percent
As a result, soft-drink manufacturers have resorted to less sugar than before.
As the current study shows that the beverages, the Sugar content in soft by an average of almost 35 percent.
During drinks in the year 2015 contained in section 4.4 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, were it in 2019, only 2.9 grams.
Other countries, such as France, Ireland and Mexico have also introduced a similar tax on Sugar. Consumer advocates are calling for such a tax for Germany.
Soda tax in Germany?
So far, the Federal government relies on a voluntary commitment by the food industry. The competent Federal Minister for food and agriculture, Julia Klöckner (CDU) has agreed with manufacturers, a reduction of 15 percent, the percentage of Sugar in beverages by 2025.
Also the fat and salt content should be reduced in foods gradually.
Critics is not enough, the self-imposed obligation, however.
“The soda tax in the UK has led to a sugar crash in the drinks shelf. In Germany, however, sugar-bomb part of still sugar bomb. The strategy of the voluntary sugar reduction of food Minister Julia Klöckner has changed nothing,“ says Luise Molling of the consumer organization food watch.
Picture gallery: So many piece of cube sugar is put in these products
For Germany also sweetener should not be included in the tax, so that food manufacturers are replacing sugar simply by sweeteners.
It is important to not only reduce the content of sugar, but the Süßgeschmack overall, the General Süßgewöhnung counteract, in particular, in the case of children and young people.
In France, the sugar includes tax already also sweeteners.
In an Interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung refused to Klöckner a sugar tax in England: “I think it is the wrong way, that we make individual commodities the scapegoat for malnutrition. We need an overall strategy to reduce the calorie balance.“
The first step to consumers about nutritional values in food, to educate, to be made with the introduction of the Nutri-Scores.
Color traffic-light labelling to raise awareness of how much sugar, fat, salt, protein and fibre in a product insert and show which foods are healthy or unhealthy.
More than half of the soft drinks in excess glucose levels in
As a market study of food watch shows, more than in excess glucose levels in half of the soft drinks in Germany. 58 percent of the tested drinks contained more than five grams of sugar per 100 milliliters.
While in the Wake of the soda-tax in great Britain, Coca-Cola, the sugar content of Fanta, and Sprite to 4.6 and 3.3 grams of reduced, contain the beverage in Germany for more than eight grams of sugar.
Sources
- Bandy, L. (2020): Reduction in sugar sales from soft drinks in the UK from 2015 to 2018. Archived from the original on 17.02.2020: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-019-1477-4
- The Federal Ministry of food and agriculture (2020): Less is more. Sugar, fats and salt reduce. Archived from the original on 17.01.2020: https://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/Broschueren/weniger-ist-mehr.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
- Government UK (2018): Soft Drinks Industry Levy comes into effect. Archived from the original on 17.01.2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/soft-drinks-industry-levy-comes-into-effect
- food watch (2018): market study 2018 – So-sugary soft drinks in Germany – still. Archived from the original on 17.01.2020: https://www.foodwatch.org/de/aktuelle-nachrichten/2018/marktcheck-jedes-zweite-erfrischungsgetraenk-ueberzuckert/
Luisa High Brink
*The contribution of “After success in the UK: the soda tax soon to Germany?” is published by FitForFun. Contact with the executives here.