They should increase the price to cover the tax and put a prominent label on each product to disclose the amount of sugar tax being paid. Make it abundantly clear to consumers who is to blame for the price increase.
For the same reason utilities should make the “green” levies embedded in bills as explicit as VAT is.
Anecdata: I used to pop antacid tablets like they were sweets. I can't remember how I discovered this but I now drink a litre of zero sugar Pepsi Max a day and no reflux. The Pepsi replaces all but one of the three or four mugs of strong sweet coffee I was drinking.
But wasn't it economically advantageous for the industry to add cheaper alternative "sweeteners? They surely couldn't have all capitulated so easily otherwise?
This is quite true. Artificial sweeteners are cheaper, the price doesn't vary as much as sugar's does, and they are produced in more politically stable countries. The trouble is that a lot of people don't like them so they need to have a sugary offering. I am told that the sale of sugary drinks is directly proportional to the amount of sugar in them. Even small differences have an impact, even when companies make the change quietly.
It saddens me to see how people just happily fall for the bait-and-switch, even hold-out brands like Fentimans and Belvoir have started doing it now.
French Orangina has been reformulated too, and even Mexican Jarritos—and you only find out after that first awful sip.
There’s no way people can’t taste the difference.They’ve convinced themselves via all the health messaging that, that bitter taste is “better,” for them.
They should increase the price to cover the tax and put a prominent label on each product to disclose the amount of sugar tax being paid. Make it abundantly clear to consumers who is to blame for the price increase.
For the same reason utilities should make the “green” levies embedded in bills as explicit as VAT is.
Anecdata: I used to pop antacid tablets like they were sweets. I can't remember how I discovered this but I now drink a litre of zero sugar Pepsi Max a day and no reflux. The Pepsi replaces all but one of the three or four mugs of strong sweet coffee I was drinking.
But wasn't it economically advantageous for the industry to add cheaper alternative "sweeteners? They surely couldn't have all capitulated so easily otherwise?
This is quite true. Artificial sweeteners are cheaper, the price doesn't vary as much as sugar's does, and they are produced in more politically stable countries. The trouble is that a lot of people don't like them so they need to have a sugary offering. I am told that the sale of sugary drinks is directly proportional to the amount of sugar in them. Even small differences have an impact, even when companies make the change quietly.
It saddens me to see how people just happily fall for the bait-and-switch, even hold-out brands like Fentimans and Belvoir have started doing it now.
French Orangina has been reformulated too, and even Mexican Jarritos—and you only find out after that first awful sip.
There’s no way people can’t taste the difference.They’ve convinced themselves via all the health messaging that, that bitter taste is “better,” for them.