Orangeades sold in Italy contain twice the sugar found in British ones. The case for a Sugar Tax
In Italy, a can of Schweppes or Fanta or San Pellegrino orangeade contains twice as much sugar as the similar cans sold in England. The reason is simple. The Sugar Tax (or Soda Tax), a useful tax measure to mitigate the public health emergency caused by the endemic spread of unbalanced diets, has been introduced in Uk and has already been successfully tested in Mexico.
Simple sugars, nutritional recommendations, and public health measures
L’
WHO
(World Health Organization) recommends drastically reducing the intake of simple sugars, which should not exceed 5 percent of daily energy requirements from food.
That is, 25 grams of sugar In the average adult’s daily diet (2000 kcal/day). 2/3 of the sucrose contained in a can of Coca-Cola. EFSA (
European Food Safety Authority
) has therefore launched a consultation, aimed at revising the thresholds for
free sugars
provided by it at a time before the emergence of recent studies on the dangerousness of excesses.
The spread of
obesity
is just one
Of the detrimental effects of excessive sugar consumption. Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, exposure to dental caries. And not only that. Researchers at the
Boston School of Medicine
have also demonstrated-in a recent publication, in
Alzheimer’s & Dementia
and in
Stroke
– a direct causal relationship between regular consumption of
soft drinks
and reduced brain volume, with memory impairment as well as triple the risk of stroke and dementia.
The
Sugar, Tobacco, and Alcohol Taxes Group
(STAX), attended by representatives from WHO, the World Bank, Unicef and other policy and research bodies, has therefore called on countries around the world to introduce a Sugar Tax. A 20 percent tax, on soft drinks and other foods with imbalanced nutritional profiles due to excess sugar, with the aim of preventing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and improving public health conditions.
Soda tax
In UK, here’s why
The United Kingdom
introduced in April 2018 a
Soda tax (the Soft Drinks Industry Levy).
which takes the form of an excise tax on all sugary drinks, locally produced and imported. (1) To the extent of 18 or 24 pence, because of the sucrose content (more than 5 i.e., 8 grams per 100 ml). The reasons are simple.
1) Health care costs. The number of obese or overweight children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 has increased more than tenfold in the past 40 years. 11 to 124 million, globally. In England, between the beginning and end of elementary school, the obesity and overweight index increases from 22.5 percent to 34.5 percent. The impact of obesity on national health spending is estimated at about 6 billion pounds, plus nearly 9 billion pounds for type 2 diabetes. (2)
2) Ineffectiveness of other measures. Field experience, as well as clinical trials, show that information and nutrition education are not enough to correct poor eating habits. Even the figure on the minutes of exercise required to dispose of a can of sugary drinks is not helpful for the purpose. Thus, tax measures represent a
extrema ratio
, already successfully tested to reduce cigarette consumption.
3) Incentive to reformulate food and beverages. ‘Analysis of experience indicates that a tax of 20 percent or more succeeds in substantially disincentivizing consumption. In addition, taxation pushes companies to change product formulation and lower the content of simple sugars’, explains Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Department of Nutrition for Health and Development. But ‘most countries are keeping to values of the tax below 10 percent for the time being.’ Not enough to stimulate change.
Taxes and other measures on soft drinks and junk-food
La
Soda tax
has proven effective early on in the UK precisely in encouraging improved nutritional profiles of soft drinks. (3) The sugar content on Fanta and Schweppes, in England, now ranges from 4.5 to 4.9 g per 100 ml (while in Italy it varies from 8.9 to 11.8 g). Sanpellegrino orange soda (Nestlé) has 4.7 g of sugar in the UK, 10.1 g in the Bel Paese. In contrast, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo remain unchanged for now, with about 11 g of sugar and almost imperceptible variations from country to country.
The United Kingdom once again
stands out in the battle against the
junk-food
. Semaphores on labels are worthwhile to identify junk food and thus stimulate improved nutritional profiles foodstuffs on the market. But they are not enough.
Theresa May’s government prioritizes public health over Big Food interests. It thus intends to ban cartoon characters, super heroes and other celebrities from commercials and junk food advertising, which will still be banned until 9 p.m. Without excluding the possibility of a Sugar tax on various food categories such as cookies and snacks, cakes and puddings, cereals.
In our country,
U2 Supermarkets
e
Coop Italy
Instead, they adopted one of the simplest yet useful initiatives. Back in 2016, U2 eliminated the junk-food from the forefront of all its outlets. So as to reduce impulse purchases of snacks, candies and snacks of little nutritional value. Coop Italy followed suit with a trial of 900 tills (about 10 percent of the total), starting in May 2018.
Dario Dongo and Carlotta Suardi
Notes
(1) Only enterprises that produce less than one million liters of sweetened soft drinks annually are exempt from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy
(2) Data collected from 1975-2016. Source UK Ministry of Health
(3) In Mexico, where the Soda Tax dates back to 2014, already after one year there has been a reduction in the consumption of sugary drinks of 4.2 liters per person (-17% among the poorer classes)
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Nutritionist biologist, ADA II level master at the University of Milan Bicocca. External lecturer at LUNEX University, Luxembourg.
