A new study published in BMC Medicine indicates that the total volume and per capita sales of sugars sold in soft drinks have substantially reduced in the UK, the major rate change being between 2017 and 2018. This can be attributed to the actions taken by beverage manufacturers to cut the sugar in their products and alter their product portfolios, combined with changes in consumer purchasing.
Researchers paired the brand-level sales data with individual product-level nutrient composition data on an annual basis from 2015 to 2018 to determine the total contribution of sugar to the soft drinks industry.
Between 2015 and 2018, there was a 30 per cent reduction in the volume of sugars sold per capita per day from soft drinks, which translates to a decrease of 4.6 g per capita per day. An overall reduction of 34 per cent in the sales-weighted mean sugar content was also observed. The total volume sales of soft drinks with >5 g/100 mL of sugar fell from 31 per cent in 2015 to 15 per cent in 2018, whereas that of low- and zero-sugar drink together rose from 43 per cent to 48 per cent during the same period.
According to the authors, "the rates of change in both mean sugar content and total sugar sales seem to have been accelerated by the announcement of the soft drink industry levy (SDIL) in March 2016 and its implementation in April 2018."
