Announced in the 2016 budget, the soft drinks industry levy (the sugar tax), will be paid by producers and importers of “water-based added sugar soft drinks” from April 2018. It is expected that the levy will have two rates (18 pence and 24 pence) dependent on the drink’s sugar content per litre.
However, the government assume that all costs of the tax will be passed on to consumers.
This research is a comparison of the sugar content in a selection of drinks which will be subject to the tax to the sugar content of a range of alternatives which will not be subject to the tax.
49 drinks with added sugar are compared in three groups: regular fizzy drinks and sports and energy drinks; milk-based products; and coffees etc. The first group will be subject to a sugar tax (if they have sufficient sugar content) the second and third groups will not.