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Sugar tax 'may be necessary', England's chief medical officer says Sugar tax 'may be necessary', England's chief medical officer says
(about 2 hours later)
It may be necessary to introduce a sugar tax, the chief medical officer for England has suggested. A sugar tax may have to be introduced to curb obesity rates, the chief medical officer for England has said.
Dame Sally Davies told a committee of MPs that unless the government is strong with food and drink manufacturers, it is unlikely they will resize their products. Dame Sally Davies told a committee of MPs that unless the government was strong with food and drink manufacturers, it was unlikely they would resize their products.
She said she believes "the research will find sugar is addictive" and that "we may need to introduce a sugar tax". She said she believed "the research will find sugar is addictive", and that "we may need to introduce a sugar tax".
The food industry says it has been working to reduce sugar in products. The food industry said it was working on reducing sugar in products.
Speaking to the Health Select Committee Dame Sally said: "We have normalised being overweight. I do fear this generation of children will live less than my parents' generation." Speaking to the health select committee, Dame Sally said: "We have normalised being overweight. I do fear this generation of children will live less than my parents' generation."
Earlier this year doctors called for a soft drinks tax to reduce sugar intake.Earlier this year doctors called for a soft drinks tax to reduce sugar intake.
The Department of Health already has a "responsibility deal" - a series of voluntary pledges by industry designed to tackle issues such as obesity. 'Voluntary pledges'
Much of the focus is on reducing salt and calorie count rather than sugar per se. The charity Sustain, which advises the government on the food and farming industry, says the UK consumes more than 5,727 million litres of sugary soft drinks a year. Adding a 20p tax for every litre sold would raise more than £1.1bn.
Ministers are also pushing ahead with front of pack labelling, which includes information about sugar. Again, this is voluntary. The Department of Health already has a "responsibility deal" - which is a series of voluntary pledges by industry designed to tackle issues such as obesity.
Much of the focus of those pledges is on reducing salt and calorie count rather than sugar per se.
And ministers are also pushing ahead with front-of-pack labelling, which includes information about sugar, but again, this will be voluntary.
Front-and-back labelling will include a combination of colour coding and nutritional information which will be used to show how much fat, salt and sugar and how many calories are in each product.