Sugar tax does its job
The manufacturer of Lucozade, Ribena and Orangina plans to reformuate all of its soft drink brands this year, to avoid incurring the sugar tax.
Sustain campaigned successfully, alongside other organisations, for a tax on heavily sugared soft drinks. The resulting levy (of 18p per litre for drinks with more than 5g of sugar per 100ml and 24p per litre for drinks with more than 8g of sugar per 100ml) comes into force in 2018. Now Suntory, which manufactures some of the best known soft drink brands, has announced that it will reformulate all its products to cut sugar and substitute artificial sweeteners, to avoid paying the tax. It claims it will remove 50% of sugar over the next year, meaning none of its drinks will exceed 4.5g of sugar per 100 ml.
That means fewer calories and less tooth decay -- which was what the tax was designed to achieve.
Read more about this story here, and find out more about Sustain's campaigning work to improve children's diets here.
Published Sunday 11 June 2017
Sugary Drinks Duty: Support the campaign for a sugary drinks duty, to pay for programmes to improve childrens health and protect the environment they grow up in.
