Food and drink companies are not hitting the Government’s voluntary 20% sugar reduction target according to the latest annual progress report from Public Health England (PHE). The reduction was introduced in 2016 in an effort to reduce sugar consumption in children and consequently reduce obesity.

Commenting on PHE’s latest report, Dr Alison Tedstone, PHE’s Chief Nutritionist, said: “Too much sugar is bad for our health and most of us are consuming more than we need, often without realising it.​ We’ve continued to see some progress in reducing sugar in a number of everyday food and drink products and this shows that success is possible through reformulation. Yet, overall progress remains too slow. Faster and more robust action is needed to help us consume less sugar, which will help us become healthier and lower the economic burden of obesity and preventable pressure on the NHS.”​

Whilst progress is apparent in reducing sugar in areas such as soft drinks, breakfast cereals and dairy, there has been a significant increase,16-17% between 2015-2019, on sales of chocolate where sugar levels are largely unchanged.

Although, pre-packed milk-based drinks have hit the target, ahead of the 2021 deadline, at 22.1% reduction in sugar – the report does show that this sector is in the minority with most food and drink sectors not hitting target.Bottom of Form

In fact, according to the report there has been no change in the average sugar levels in products overall, having said that the report did show that there had been a reduction of 9.7% in average calories from 2017 to 2019.

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