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Summary
- The UK government is considering levying a Sugar and Salt Reformulation Tax to lower meat and junk food consumption.
- Taxes raised would help fund free meals for an additional 1.1 million school children.
- National Food Strategy has urged the government to invest £50m for developing alternative proteins that serve as sustainable alternatives in ready-to-eat meals.
The UK government is considering levying a £3 billion Sugar and Salt Reformulation Tax under the National Food Strategy (commissioned in 2019) in an effort towards lowering meat consumption, tackling climate change and reducing consumption of junk and processed food. It is being touted as the world’s first tax on sugar and salt that could be levied on food items sold in canteens, cafes, restaurants and shops in England. The population’s faulty eating habits and poor diets have resulted in excessive dependence on processed food, which contributes to around 64,000 deaths every year.
Recommendations under the National Food Strategy
A key recommendation was the imposition of £3 and £6 on the wholesale of every kilogram of sugar and salt, respectively used across the processed food and catering industry and in restaurants. This is expected to increase taxes to an annual £3.4 billion, which could help fund free meals for an additional 1.1 million school children and will play a pivotal role in the makeover of the country’s food and cooking habits. This, however, could increase the prices of some of the most popular snacks, which may hit poor consumers. Conversely, policy makers opine that the new taxes would encourage manufacturers to rethink product formulations and portion sizes.
UK’s National Food Strategy emphasises the impact of the food and farming sector on nature and climate. Changes in eating habits and destruction of the environmental equilibrium have been hitting the environment hard and threatening food security, thus leading to destructive climate changes and harvest failures. It also urges the UK government to invest £50m towards developing alternative proteins that could serve as sustainable options in ready-to-eat meals.
It also states that consumption of meat and ultra-processed food in the UK would have to be reduced by about one-third, while vegetable and fruit consumption should be increased by 30% by 2032. This will lower greenhouse gas emissions and concentration of other pollutants and thus make way for increasing forest cover that can absorb carbon dioxide - a popular greenhouse gas, necessary to reach the country’s net zero emissions target by 2050.
Also read: Net Zero Emissions: How UK Companies Are Trying to Achieve the SDGs
Strategies to meet net zero emission goals
The government is also suggesting popularising sustainable meat alternatives such as veggie sausages as well as plant-based and lab-grown meats in processed foods. The impact of Brexit also featured in the strategy, which focuses on ascertaining high food standards in future trade agreements. Poor standards pertaining to the trade of food products will result in the export of various environmental harmful products, bankrupting local farmers.
The pandemic proved to be an acid test in more ways than one and obesity was listed as a key factor for the high death rate in the country. However, recommendations proposed under the new tax regime may attract a considerable amount of criticism from manufacturers and farm owners whose business and financial models have been designed as per the current food system.
Other recommendations include taking about 5-8% of the total farmland out of cultivation to address the net zero emission goals, encouraging general practitioners to prescribe fruits and vegetable rich diets to nutritionally deficient patients, improving nutritional awareness at school levels, etc.
