Researchers from Newcastle, York and Anglia Ruskin Universities, examined the impact of both a 20% and 40% tax on unhealthier cereals and soft drinks containing sugar. It also looked at whether telling people they were being taxed influenced the way they shopped.
Daniel Zizzo, professor of economics at Newcastle University Business School and lead researcher, said: “Our findings suggest a 20% sugar tax would work and lead to large changes in shopping behaviour.
“We know the Government is already introducing a sugar levy on fizzy drinks in 2018. Our evidence shows that it could be applied to other products successfully, though I expect the size of the effect to be smaller than what we found in our study.”
One thousand people living in the UK took part in the study and were given a budget of £10 to spend on soft drinks and cereals. The products were classed by researchers as healthier or less healthy, depending upon their nutritional value.
The research found that a 40% tax was effective in reducing the purchase both of unhealthier cereals and sugar-sweetened beverages, whilst a 20% tax significantly reduced the sale of the cereals but not of the less healthy drinks.
The research paper The Impact of Taxation and Signposting on Diet: An Online Field Study with Breakfast Cereals and Soft Drinks is published by the University of York’s Centre for Health Economics. It is co-authored by Professor Daniel Zizzo and Dr Melanie Parravano at Newcastle University, Professor Marc Suhrcke and Dr Ryota Nakamura at the University of York, and Dr Suzanna Forwood at Anglia Ruskin University.