Sugar Awareness Week takes place from 17th – 23rd November 2025. Hosted by OHA members Action on Sugar, the week highlights the health risks of consuming too much sugar and advocates for stronger nutrition policies to create a healthier food environment. Lucien White, a PhD student at Queen Mary University, explores the UK’s ongoing efforts to reduce sugar consumption and reduce levels of diet-related disease through government policy.
In the UK, around 90% of children and 80% of adults consume more sugar than the recommended daily amount1. Eating too much sugar increases the risk of weight gain, type 2 diabetes and cancer2, with 64.5% of adults and 27% of children now overweight or living with obesity in the UK3.
To tackle rising obesity levels and poor diets, the government has introduced several policies focused at reducing sugar intake. But how effective have these polices been? What are the Government’s next steps to help protect us from consuming too much sugar?
Previous Policies
In 2016, the government published “Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action”, a 10-year strategy to reduce childhood obesity. In this policy document the Sugar Reduction Programme and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) were announced.5
The Sugar Reduction Programme, introduced in 2016, set voluntary guidelines for companies to cut sugar content by 20% by 2020, focusing on categories that contribute the most to children’s sugar intake. However, by 2020 sugar content reduced by only 3.5% per 100 grams across targeted categories6. This shortfall likely reflects the programme’s weaknesses of a blanket 20% reduction guideline across all categories, as opposed to a more incremental and targeted approach that would better accommodate category nuance and feasibility. Furthermore, the voluntary nature of the programme gave industry little incentive to reformulate its products.
By contrast the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) was introduced in 2018 and was far more successful. The SDIL placed a tiered tax on sugary drinks, uprating in October this year7 to:
- £2.59 per 10L for drinks with more than 8g of sugar per 100ml.
- £1.94 per 10L for drinks containing 5–8g of sugar per 100ml.
- Drinks with less than 5g per 100ml of sugar are exempt.
Between 2015 and 2020, manufacturers almost halved the sugar content of drinks subject to the levy8. Just one year after implementation, free sugar intake fell by 5 g/day in children and 11 g/day in adults, with more than half of this reduction coming from soft drinks alone9 – demonstrating that when industry faces meaningful incentives, reformulation follows.
Current Policies
In 2018, the government released chapter 2 of the Childhood Obesity Plan, setting an ambitious strategy to halve childhood obesity by 2030. To help achieve this, restrictions on the advertisement and promotion of unhealthy food were proposed10.
The UK’s High in Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) advertising restrictions aimed to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing and included a ban on TV adverts for HFSS products before 9pm and restrictions on paid online advertising11. However, falling victim to heavy industry lobbying, the policy saw multiple delays and cutbacks and is now scheduled to come into effect in January 2026, 4 years after originally intended.
The HFSS placement and volume promotion restrictions limit how and where unhealthy foods can be promoted in shops12. These measures ban multi-buy deals, such as “Buy One Get One Free” and restrict the placement of HFSS products in key store locations, including checkouts, entrances, and aisle ends. The placement restrictions were introduced on schedule in 2022 and have already led to a 63% reduction in HFSS sales by weight for affected products13. After being delayed by three years, the volume promotion restrictions finally came into effect this October 2025. Hopefully, now we will be able to see the full impact of these restrictions, as they reduce impulse purchases of unhealthy products and encourage consumers to make healthier choices.
What’s Next?
The future of sugar reduction remains somewhat unclear. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, published in July 2025, outlines a long-term strategy to improve public health. It includes further measures to reduce sugar consumption; a ban on energy drinks for under-16s (which often contain high levels of sugar)14; a strengthening of the SDIL to remove exemptions for milk-based drinks and lower the minimum sugar threshold; mandatory reporting of healthy food sales, and a revision of the Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM).
Government consultations held this year focused on both the strengthening of the SDIL (April to July) and the proposed energy drinks ban (September to November). Whilst policies such as these are progressing, little else has yet to be announced. One of the crucial next steps lies in the introduction of mandatory sales reporting. This reporting should cover a wide range of nutrients and set clear, time-bound healthy sales targets linked to reformulation and marketing polices. An updated NPM should also be published as soon as possible to support consistent policy implementation and reflect current dietary guidelines.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that voluntary policies are often ineffective in reducing sugar intake, especially when there is little incentive for industry compliance or measures of accountability. The success of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) shines as an example of how incentivised regulation can drive change across the food and drink sector. Moving forward, if we want to see the same success, a similar tax on all foods and drinks high in sugar should be introduced. Furthermore, greater transparency and stronger safeguards against industry influence in policymaking are essential to ensure that public health remains the priority. If the policies outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan are implemented swiftly, protected from industry influence, and properly enforced, they could offer a real opportunity to reduce sugar consumption across the UK. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see whether these promises turn into action.
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You can also read Action on Sugar’s latest report which analyses so-called “healthy” snack bars – and the surprising levels of hidden sugars behind their glossy packaging and health-focused claims – published as part of Sugar Awareness Week below.
Read the report here