UK Soda Tax Coming April 6th 2018

Seleniodine

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Brits can soon look forward to more expensive , poorer tasting and even poisonous soft drinks.
Starting April 6th 2018 the new sugary soft drink tax takes effect. Manufacturers are lowering portion sizes and replacing with other natural sweeteners such as stevia and in some cases using aspartame. Scots are buying up the remaining stocks of their beloved Irn Bru before the aspartame version takes over. Yudkin strikes from beyond the grave it seems. Any bets on whether obesity or diabetes rates in Britain will decrease as a result of this? Pure fruit juice and milk drinks excluded for now. Chocolates next?

The 2018 UK sugar tax

What is the UK sugar tax, how much will the price of fizzy drinks increase by and how much sugar do they contain?

Scots ‘panic buy’ Irn-Bru ahead of recipe change this month

Wetherspoons increases price of sugary soft drinks

Nestlé to remove 10% of sugar from all snacks in UK and Ireland by 2018

From Wikipedia:
"In the 2016 United Kingdom budget, the UK Government announced the introduction of a sugar tax, officially named the "Soft Drinks Industry Levy". Planned to come into effect in 2018, beverage manufacturers will be taxed according to the volume of sugar-sweetened beverages they produce or import. The tax will be imposed at the point of production or importation, in two bands. Drinks with total sugar content above 5g per 100 millilitres will be taxed at 18p per litre and drinks above 8g per 100 millilitres at 24p per litre. The measure is estimated to generate an additional £1 billion a year in tax revenue which will be spent on funding for sport in UK schools.[57][58]

It is proposed that pure fruit juices, milk-based drinks and the smallest producers will not be taxed. It is expected that some manufacturers will reduce sugar content in order to avoid the taxation.[59] AG Barr have significantly cut sugar content in their primary product Irn Bru in advance of the tax.

Notable research on effect of excess sugar in modern diets in the United Kingdom includes the work of Professor John Yudkin with his book called, "Pure, White and Deadly: The Problem of Sugar" first published in 1972.[60] With regard to a proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, a study published in the British Medical Journal on 31 October 2013, postulated that a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would reduce obesity in the United Kingdom rates by about 1.3%, and concluded that taxing sugar-sweetened beverages was "a promising population measure to target population obesity, particularly among younger adults."[61]
Campaigners want the sugar tax extended to include confectionary and sweets to help tackle childhood obesity.[62]"
 
OP
Seleniodine

Seleniodine

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Or maybe if it was aimed specifically at taxing high fructose corn syrup and derivatives in these soft drinks and processed foods.
But as far as I can see there is no nuance to this new tax, so inevitably there will be unintended consequences.
Sugar has been very effectively demonized. Most "health" conscious people I speak to have an almost pathological fear
of sugar and are all trying to steer towards a ketogenic or paleo diet of some sort.

I would support it if it excluded small craft soda makers.
 

meatbag

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As if this helps obese people lol. Even if sugar was bad and fattening, those taxes aren't going to stop people who actually have a problem from drinking it and it's still cheaper than fruit juice at that rate
 

Herbie

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In Australia the Premier said that putting a sugar tax on is fascist and that people should not look to the taxation department if they have an issue with weight.
 
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raypeatclips

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Recently looking through a usual soft drinks fridge in a normal supermarket, and the only drinks without any sweetner were coca cola, pepsi and San Pellegrino. Literally everything else had included sweetner included in some form to lower their sugar content, I'm guessing for the upcoming sugar tax. Last week I noticed coca cola bottles sizes has reduced dramatically at the supermarket near me, for similar prices to the previously larger versions, so I guess this is coca Cola's response, rather than change their recipe, reduce size, or increase price were their only options.
 

yerrag

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I suppose the only recourse is to make your own soda at home. Real cane sugar, apple juice, CO2, water and you have your own Apple Sidra. With orange juice, Mirinda. With sassafras, your own real root beer. I know, it's another thing to do. My kitchen is starting to look like a lab lol
 

Obi-wan

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I think this tax started in Philadelphia, USA
 

biffbelvin

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It's quite forboding due to the potential of a ratchet-type effect. There are those who are already calling for fruit juice to be taxed, who's to say they won't try to do the same for other nutrients, like saturated fat? Within the context of the UK, the potential for fruit Juice to be taxed is particularly troublesome as it's very difficult/expensive to get ripe fruit for most of the year. Pressed juices are my primary source of fruit for around 9 months of the year.

I can understand why it has passed though as the standard UK diet is rife with PUFA and fortified wheat flour. I appreciate that a lot of people on this forum consider coke to be benign, and in some cases therapeutic, but in the context of an average UK citizen it is not.
 

Obi-wan

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Yes, they call it the soda tax. The city is happy with the extra millions in revenue (supposed to go to the schools). Retailers reporting lower sales as people go outside the Philly area to buy their soda in bulk
 

RobertJM

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Yes, they call it the soda tax. The city is happy with the extra millions in revenue (supposed to go to the schools). Retailers reporting lower sales as people go outside the Philly area to buy their soda in bulk

Haha. Awesome. The lengths people will go in order to get their sugars!
 

RobertJM

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On a more serious note, if this were to snowball and they mess with fruit juices that would seriously affect me. I already despise the way this country is run, and I wouldnt give this degenerating dump a second thought if I had to move somewhere else. I have absolutely no ties here.
 

Obi-wan

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Just found Mexican Coke at Costco. Bought a case for $18.89. No soda tax
 

raypeatclips

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It's quite forboding due to the potential of a ratchet-type effect. There are those who are already calling for fruit juice to be taxed, who's to say they won't try to do the same for other nutrients, like saturated fat? Within the context of the UK, the potential for fruit Juice to be taxed is particularly troublesome as it's very difficult/expensive to get ripe fruit for most of the year. Pressed juices are my primary source of fruit for around 9 months of the year.

I can understand why it has passed though as the standard UK diet is rife with PUFA and fortified wheat flour. I appreciate that a lot of people on this forum consider coke to be benign, and in some cases therapeutic, but in the context of an average UK citizen it is not.

I can picture it now, shady characters out on the streets wearing long black trenchcoats opening them up to reveal a variety of fruit juices and a stick of butter.
 

goodandevil

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I can picture it now, shady characters out on the streets wearing long black trenchcoats opening them up to reveal a variety of fruit juices and a stick of butter.
"She fell on her knees, threw open the bag, and tumbled out some spanners and a screwdriver that filled the top part of it. Underneath were a number of neat paper packets. The first packet that she passed to Winston had a strange and yet vaguely familiar feeling. It was filled with some kind of heavy, sand-like stuff which yielded wherever you touched it.

'It isn't sugar?' he said.

'Real sugar. Not saccharine, sugar."

-1984
 

Herbie

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It's quite forboding due to the potential of a ratchet-type effect. There are those who are already calling for fruit juice to be taxed, who's to say they won't try to do the same for other nutrients, like saturated fat? Within the context of the UK, the potential for fruit Juice to be taxed is particularly troublesome as it's very difficult/expensive to get ripe fruit for most of the year. Pressed juices are my primary source of fruit for around 9 months of the year.

In Australia last year there was a proposed sugar, saturated fat and salt tax and it came from academia. Its deeply concerning.
 

Cirion

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As somewhat of an aside in my state (Missouri) I think they tried to pass a massive tobacco tax awhile back. I think smoking is dumb, that being said, I believe in freedom to do just about whatever you want for the most part (as long as it doesn't negatively affect someone else), so this is ridiculous. It's a slippery slope to start taxing things like that. I know politicians would LOVE to put huge taxes on guns and/or ammunition as well, since they know there is almost no way a full gun ban will pass... these are like "soft bans"... put a 3000% tax on gun ammunition for example, and effectively, gun owners are neutered without a need for a ban.
 
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U should only be taxed on soda if your vitamin D is low... then that sugar is doing a disservice to you
 

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