NEW Report: Sugar reduction programme: industry progress 2015 to 2020
The Government’s final report of the Sugar Reduction Programme has now been released. Originally due for publication a year ago, the report is an assessment of food industry progress towards the voluntary reduction target of 20% in the food and drink products contributing most towards children’s sugar intake from a 2015 baseline to the programme end in 2020. Let’s look at some of the key results:
1. Supermarket own brand and branded products
Sugar content of products
- Overall 3.5% reduction in total sugar per 100g between 2015 and 2020 (sales weighted average).
- Larger reductions for yogurts and fromage frais (13.5%), breakfast cereals (14.9%), and ice cream, lollies and sorbets (7.2%).
- The smallest reductions were seen in chocolate confectionary (0.9%) and puddings (2.3%).
Total volume sales
- 7.1% increase in the tonnes of sugar sold from the product categories included in the programme between 2015 and 2020
- 8.1% increase in total volume sales between 2015 and 2020 for the product categories included in the programme
2. Out-of-home sector
- 0.2% reduction in the average sugar per 100g between 2017 and 2020.
- Sugar content reduced in cakes (8.2%) and morning goods (3.5%), and increased in ice cream, lollies and sorbets (up 0.5%), and puddings and biscuits (up 0.3%)
- Calorie content of food products likely to be consumed on a single occasion was also measured for certain food categories, with an overall reduction in average calories per portion from 422 kcals in 2017 to 377 kcals in 2019 (10.7%).
3. Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL, separate, mandatory programme)
- Sales of soft drinks have increased by 21.3% from 2015 to 2020, due to an increase in sales of drinks containing less than 5g of sugar per 100ml
- At the same time total sugar sales from the soft drinks decreased by 34.3% between 2015 and 2020.
What next for Sugar Reduction?
We welcome the Government’s newly published data, and the transparency this brings. Despite a disappointing headline figure, there are examples of product categories that have seen significant reductions in sugar content, showing the potential for the food industry to reduce sugar levels in their products. However, what is most clear from this, is that a voluntary programme is not an effective way to get the widespread and consistent reductions in sugar content that we need.
The voluntary programme provides lessons learned for the future and a solid basis for a rigorous, well-managed programme, with mandatory data-driven targets specific to the different food and drink categories. In fact, as part of last month’s Sugar Awareness Week, we released our own report on the UK’s Sugar Reduction Programme, examining why more progress has not been made and making recommendations for a strong mandatory programme. As it stands the UK no longer has a sugar reduction programme, despite being asked by the WHO Europe to lead the way on sugar reduction in Europe. So now is the time to build on the progress made, and work towards implementing a mandatory programme – we can’t afford to throw away the progress that has been made.
Professor Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London and Chairman of Action on Sugar and Action on Salt says: "Whilst this new report shows that the food industry is capable of reducing sugar levels in food with good progress in breakfast cereals and yogurts, it makes it abundantly clear that a voluntary reformulation approach simply does not work. The UK faces an obesity crisis and one of the principle plans outlined by the Department of Health and Public Health England was to tackle this by reducing sugar in food products by 20% by 2020 across the main food categories. Not surprisingly the plan was an abject failure. Like with the successful soft drinks levy, the food industry wants certainty and direction which is why the Government must commit to measures such as mandatory targets for calories, sugar and salt reduction, enforced marketing and promotions restrictions and clearer, mandatory food labelling. We mustn't forget that unhealthy diets high in saturated fat, salt and sugar (which lack fruit and vegetables) is the biggest cause of death and disability globally and costs the UK more than £100 billion (combined) annually. Procrastinating any further should not be an option."
