In April 2018, the UK Government introduced a levy on sugary drink producers. Our study looks at whether increasing the price of sweet snacks would be as effective.
We found that a 10% increase in the price of sweet snacks could lead to a similar reduction in consumer demand as the same price increase for sugar-sweetened drinks.
However, such a price increase is estimated to have knock-on effects that may further reduce purchases of sugar-sweetened drinks and other snacks.
Furthermore, as sweet snacks provide twice as much sugar in the diet as sugar-sweetened drinks, the overall reduction on sugar intake could be even greater than that observed with price increases for sugar-sweetened drinks.
Are sweet snacks more sensitive to price increases than sugar-sweetened beverages: analysis of British food purchase data. Smith, Cornelsen, Quirmbach, Jebb, Marteau, 2018.