Sugar tax: could your biscuits and chocolate bars soon face a new tax?

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Today with David McCullagh 8 min 2 speakers 7 chapters transcribed 2 hours ago

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What were the results of Ireland’s 2018 sugar tax on fizzy drinks?

David McCullagh 0:00

Morning, Frank. Good morning. You've previously, you were involved in the research previously along with your colleagues who evaluated the original sugar tax which was eventually implemented in 2018 covering fizzy drinks. Just remind us what that covers and how effective it's been.

Dr Frank Houghton 0:43

Yeah, that covers sort of carbonated or fizzy drinks, as you mentioned. And in our evaluation, which we conducted for the Department of Health, we did find it had quite a significant reduction. In the year after it was implemented, we actually noted that the average person in Ireland had between a 20% and a 30% reduction in sugar intake via carbonated drinks. Now, for any public health intervention, that's just a fabulous result.

David McCullagh 1:09

Yeah, I suppose some people are worried that inflation means that the sugar taxes has become, I think, invisible is the word that's used.

Dr Frank Houghton 1:18

Yep. And effectively, I mean, inflation has eroded it, which is undoubtedly going to have an impact. We've also found that, you know, a lot of shops aren't necessarily differentiating the price. So maybe they're gouging, maybe they're absorbing the profit.

How has inflation affected the visibility and impact of the sugar tax?

Dr Frank Houghton 1:32

It's hard to know which it is. But what we saw is, you know, the carbonated drinks tax, the sugar tax, it clearly worked. But that's only sort of, you know, part of the equation. There's obviously the chocolate, sweets, confectionery, all of these things that we need to seriously look at.

David McCullagh 1:50

Yeah. OK, so there's around 100 countries around the world, I understand, that have implemented a sugar tax focusing on the sugary drinks that you've just been talking about. But how many countries have taxed sugar rich food, what you're moving on to now?

Dr Frank Houghton 2:04

Yeah, I think that, to be honest, that's one of the next things that a lot of these countries are going to have to start looking at. You're right, there's well over 100 countries have introduced the sugar tax on drinks. The number that have a specific sugar tax... on foods is quite small. I suppose Hungary is probably one of the best examples. About a decade or so ago, they introduced what they call their public health product tax.

Why are policymakers considering extending the sugar tax to sweets and biscuits?

Dr Frank Houghton 2:29

But I do think that's where we need to start to go. I mean, I'm particularly concerned about young people. I'm concerned about sort of, you know, habits and lifestyles that people get into. I know my own youngest is 14 years of age, and he comes back and, you know, delights in telling me, you know, that when he goes to the local Aldi in the village I live at, you know, custard creams are only... I think when we did this study, they were 55 cents a packet. I think they might have gone up a little bit now. But, I mean, essentially for... For a little more than one euro, you can get two packs of these, which are probably delivering 3,000 calories. In our study, we just took – I mean it was hard to know what figure to pick, but we decided why don't we look at an hour of minimum wage.

Dr Frank Houghton 3:15

An hour of minimum wage when we did the study a few months ago. It could actually, if you bought custard creams, possibly being one of the best examples or worst examples, whatever way you want to word it, but it could deliver over 39,000 calories. So that's enough calories for most of us for almost 20 days.

David McCullagh 3:34

Okay, it's enough calories, but you wouldn't be able to live on custard creams for 20 days, would you?

Which countries have already taxed sugar‑rich foods and what can we learn from them?

Dr Frank Houghton 3:39

No, that's the thing. I mean, that's another point of argument is that these are what, you know, dietitians and nutritionists would describe as empty calories.

David McCullagh 3:47

So,

Dr Frank Houghton 3:47

yeah, they're giving you the calories, they're giving you the sugar boost, but they're really not giving you much else.

David McCullagh 3:52

OK, I presume very few people, though, are going to eat that number of custard creams. I mean, presumably the answer here is personal restraint. Don't scoff a packet of biscuits in one go.

Dr Frank Houghton 4:06

It is to a degree, but I mean, you know, a conversation, as I say, I have with my youngest, I'm there like, you know, don't buy the whole packet of biscuits, buy something with just a few biscuits and buy something smaller. And his response is quite logical response is, but they're just so good value.