Sugar tax a first step in obesity war - UK introduces sweet drinks levy

BRITAIN’S chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne led the United Kingdom into a small but growing club of countries when he introduced his eight budget on Wednesday. Mr Osborne announced that Britain would impose a sugar tax on soft drinks from 2018 to try to slow the obesity epidemic threatening millions of individuals and the economic sustainability of public health services.

One estimate suggests that obesity-related illnesses cost Britain’s NHS more than €2 billion a year. America’s medical bill for obesity at the turn of the decade was pitched at €135bn. The American Heart Association warns that soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages were the largest contributor of added sugars in Americans’ diets.

Introducing his budget last October Finance Minister Michael Noonan dismissed the idea of a sugar tax but that untenable position has been, thankfully, abandoned. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, and Labour all promised to impose a sugar levy in their election manifestos. Such impressive unity, such common purpose, may not be a sign of parliamentary harmony to come but it does suggest that the majority of politicians have come to accept, especially after the decades-long war with the death-peddling tobacco giants, that public health issues trump the interests of food conglomerates. Fianna Fáil went even further and proposed to ban television advertising of foods high in fat, salt, and sugar before 9pm.