Die britische Zuckersteuer soll auf mehr Erfrischungsgetränke und Milchshakes ausgeweitet werden

„The UK’s sugar tax will be extended to more soft drinks as well as milkshakes under plans to fight obesity to be set out on Tuesday.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, will announce he is cutting the level at which the sugar tax is imposed after major brands changed their recipes to avoid the levy, threatening to catch some of Britain’s best-known drinks, according to two people briefed on the plans.

Milkshakes and pre-packaged coffees such as lattes and cappuccinos will also be included as ministers extend the levy to milk-based drinks for the first time. The sugar tax was introduced by George Osborne in 2016 as a levy on drinks with a sugar content of 5g per 100ml. This has led to numerous brands reformulating products to avoid the tax, widely hailed as a public health success.

However, officials believe it is now time to be more ambitious with many brands having sugar content just below 5g. Streeting will set out plans to lower the threshold to 4.5g per 100ml, catching drinks such as Pepsi.

Many well known brands such as Fanta and Irn-Bru sit at 4.5g and it is unclear if they will be caught by the tax. Milk-based drinks, originally exempted to protect children’s calcium intake, will now be included to end what a consultation described as an “anomaly”.

The tax rates, currently set at 19.4p per litre for drinks with a sugar content between 5g and 8g per 100ml and 25.9p above that, are also likely to be increased. Rates rose this year for the first time and a consultation proposed raising them with inflation for the next four years.“

This constant fiddling and Nanny State creep is just insane. I know it raises revenue and I know it appeases all the quangos that have been set up to focus narrowly on ‚issues‘ but literally no-one actually voted for this.

It’s a systemic problem, because no individual company can fight it, and none is going to be the first to robustly argue against it, such is the suspicion against any business these days.

I’m a massive Diet Coke drinker but part of me hopes for some smoking-style revelation about aspartame in the future just so the technocrats that took against sugar get the opprobrium they deserve.

You will never convince me that artificial sweeteners are better for you than actual sugar.

A lot of drinks were absolutely ruined in an attempt to comply with the sugur tax, and now they’re delibrately fucking with the limits again to change it first.

Why not just tax anything above 0.5g (To avoid stuff with trace sugars) and be fucking done with it. Constantly fiddling with shit is causing massive uncertinty, the type of stuff that genuinely messes with buissness and pushes prices up.

More tax to pay then. Unfortunately sugar free alternative are never as good.

The ever expanding tax state

This country is throughly out of ideas and incredibly depressing

All soft drinks taste like shit since they brought in the sugar tax. Just carbonated water with a hint of taste. I got that used to it that I forgot what they actually tasted like until I went abroad. I also put on a ton of weight after they brought in the tax which is interesting to say the least. Ha

Maybe people should just have to pass a BMI test to get a sugar drink. I’m not fat, I have a regular coke maybe once a month or so, usually with a McDonald’s or meal out when I’m driving. Why the fuck should I have to pay more because some fat cunts drink it like it’s water.

The 0-calorie drinks aren’t cheaper though. Same price per bottle, so something isn’t working

Collective punishment because a small percentage of the population has zero impulse control and gets obese.

…and it’ll be abused by the manufacturers. Coca cola for example, increased their prices due to the tax, but also cut the pack sizes from 30 to 24 cans

Best thing about this goverment is that they think keeping things the same as the last 20 years will transform the country. Tiny managerial fixes like an additional tax on lattes or abiding by slightly different fiscal rules are sure to undo the great harms that have been done.

It’s time we start talking about systemic change, the entire neo-liberal order is corrupt. Our geo-politics are corrupt. The ecology of the planet has been corrupted. Our communities have been destroyed. Our mental health us constantly under attack. Business as usual is what got us into this mess, it’s time for some uncomfortable discussions on shaping a new system

I don’t think this tinkering is going to solve our problems somehow 

I’d happily drink soft drinks etc with less sugar but no sweetener whatsoever. Not only does sweetener send me wonky in the head, it’s also disgusting. I would also happily pay a bit extra for old fashioned sugary drinks with no sweetener, of course. It’s not like I was ever downing gallons of the stuff anyway. Coke is about the only mainstream soft drink without sweetener now, and man alive that is just too sweet.

I’m ok with that, taxing things that are detrimental to society should be seen as a good thing.

I love soft drinks, I even bought a soda machine , switching to artificial sweetener was a game changer and allowed me to drop the last couple of pounds I had been fighting with for my whole life

Yeah and the low sugar stuff will go up too… everyone is skint I’m sick of the government working against us with stupid ideas

Nooooo! Not the milkshakes. It’s the only joy I have.

Good. Guzzling that stuff is part of a lifestyle that is costly to the NHS – it should be taxed accordingly.

I know people who’s moods dip when they don’t get their daily 2 litre bottle of Coca Cola. All have been on antidepressants.

I had to completely cut all artificial sweeteners out of my diet as they give me bloody diarrhoeah. I drink fizzy water mixed with just enough fruit juice to give it flavour. You get used to it.