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\nSupermarket shoppers are spending more on carbonated drinks now than when the sugar tax started<\/p>\n
Temperatures are increasing and it’s the time of year when we are all tempted to drop a few fizzy drinks into the trolley.<\/p>\n
But at what cost? In theory, the introduction of the Sugar Sweetened Drinks Tax on fizzy drinks in 2018 should have made us think twice before buying and consuming too much sugary fizzy drinks.<\/p>\n
Suppliers of drinks containing between five and eight grammes of sugar per 100mls have been paying an additional 5c on a 330ml can. And for drinks with more than eight grammes per 100mls, that rises to 8c a can.<\/p>\n
So is the sugar tax really making unhealthy fizzy drinks more expensive? When we visit the soft drinks aisle of our local supermarket, are the high sugar carbonated drinks costing more?<\/p>\n
Dr Frank Houghton from the Technological University of the Shannon, led a team of researchers who monitored prices of carbonated drinks across Ireland.<\/p>\n
“What we found was in supermarkets, for 60% of products that should have shown a price difference based on the sugar tax, there was no difference.<\/p>\n
“The situation in hospitality venues, like cafes pubs, hotels, was even more dramatic. We found 88% of the time, people were paying the same price.”<\/p>\n
\nSupermarket shoppers are spending more on carbonated drinks now than when the sugar tax started<\/p>\n
Supermarket shoppers are spending more on carbonated drinks now than they did when the sugar tax started, but the kind of drinks we are buying has changed.<\/p>\n
Emer Healy Director at the Market research company Kantar Worldpanel says there has been a very significant move towards low or zero sugar carbonated drinks.<\/p>\n
“Growth in diet and light carbonates have massively accelerated since the introduction of the sugar tax. So, what we see today in 2026, we spend as a nation over \u20ac320 million on carbonates but nearly 54% of those sales are on lights and diets.”<\/p>\n
Since the tax was introduced, some soft drink brands have reduced their sugar content and no longer pay the tax. The Irish Beverage Council which represents the soft drinks industry rejects calls for the tax to be index linked.<\/p>\n
“The soft drinks sector has been actively reducing sugar in their products through recipe innovation through reformulation and through the launch of new low and no sugar products for over two decades now.<\/p>\n
“The main reason for this is response to a changing market,” says Robert Kiernan, Director of the Irish Beverage Council.<\/p>\n
“Irish consumers have been changing their consumption patterns and their preferences towards this low and no sugar category far in advance of the sugar tax.”<\/p>\n
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences<\/a><\/p>\n However, Dr Houghton says while some soft drinks may have less sugar, we may be drinking higher volumes due to larger sizes of products.<\/p>\n “Our concern is yes many manufacturers have reformulated their recipe to fall below the sugar tax, so the concentration of sugar has gone down.<\/p>\n “But the volume has gone up. If everything you buy is a 500ml can, then to some extent some of the gains have been lost.”<\/p>\n The latest figures released from Revenue show the sugar tax has raised just over \u20ac233m since it began in May 2018, yielding approximately \u20ac30m every year for the exchequer.<\/p>\n The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) has long called for the sugar tax to be strengthened and expanded. It wants to see the funds ringfenced to support and encourage healthier eating in areas where obesity is highest.<\/p>\n “That (money) should be going into subsidies for the likes of fruit and vegetables to help children and families, to help disadvantaged communities have a healthier diet,” says Mark Murphy of the IHF.<\/p>\n “Other funds out there such as the carbon tax .. is ringfenced. We think the same should be done for the Sugar Sweetened Drinks Tax.”<\/p>\n Read more<\/b>
WHO pushes for higher taxes on sugary drinks, alcohol<\/a>
Health Department urged hike in sugar tax<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temperatures are increasing and it’s the time of year when we are all tempted to drop a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[105,4434,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-942147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116529196519377901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}