We know that families want affordable, tasty, convenient and healthier food, but the current market is flooded with cheap, unhealthy options.

We have a predilection for calorie-dense foods, which means food companies invest more time and money creating these foods, which makes us eat more of them and expands the market, which leads to more investment, which makes us eat more.
Henry Dimbleby

We must break the junk food cycle and redesign our failing food system to put health first.  

We have an opportunity to rebalance food environments to make them healthier for our children and build on the impact of measures like the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.  

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) has successfully reduced sugar content across soft drinks purchased by all socio-economic groups, without leading to a fall in sales. Since its introduction in 2018, total sugar sales in soft drinks have reduced by 34.3% (that’s 46 million kgs a year), and household intake of sugar in soft drinks has reduced by an average of over seven teaspoons a week, with higher reduction amongst more people from disadvantaged communities and households.  

We must build on this success to ensure that healthier options are the most affordable and accessible options for everyone.

We are asking Government to move beyond voluntary measures that don’t work and:

• Build on the successful model of SDIL to by introducing a new levy on unhealthy food
• Incentivise businesses to change the recipe of the food and drink that they sell to make them healthier for all of us
• Invest revenue raised from these industry levies, like SDIL, in funding policies to improve children’s health, and cinreasing access to good food

Read more on different options for future industry levies:

The policy options