Jamie Oliver's call to end the #sugarrush is good, but where does the pot of gold rest?

Jamie Oliver's #Sugarrush a game changer?

Famed restauranteur and foodie Jamie Oliver ramped up the anti-sugar campaign with a stomach churning TV programme showing the effects of sugar over-consumption on kids' teeth and diabetic folks' health (Channel 4 on 3/Sept), a public petition that has attracted nearly 150,000 signatures (sign up here), and a stirring performance at a government health committee meeting on 19/Oct. His insights and actions may be the game changer Action on Sugar and other lobby groups have been looking for in their well meaning efforts to tackle the growing obesity problem here in Britain.

I support wholeheartedly Jamie Oliver's challenge to government to add a 20p/litre tax on soft drinks and make front-of-pack nutritional labelling mandatory in an effort to help us reduce our daily #sugarrush. In my view, a sugar tax could work if implemented in a similar way as a"plastic bag" tax i.e. at the cashier's till so more obvious to shoppers. As well, his call is helpful as he's seen by many ordinary folks in the UK (and elsewhere) as an apolitical champion of better food education.

However, like Nathan Gray opined in a recent Food Navigator article, I don't believe that sugar taxes alone will have a significant effect on people's soft drink consumption habits. Why? Well, a "sugar tax" really only works in my view when there are viable substitutes available to buy and front of pack nutritional labelling is mandatory. Let me explain in more detail.

The problem with "No Added Sugar" options.....

Firstly, there are in reality very few naturally healthy drinks available on store shelves driven mainly by a "no added sugar" mantra and by mainstream retailers dragging their feet on making bigger changes to their soft drink shelves. [see my observations here on this particular issue - article]. 

A common response to the "No Added Sugar" mantra is for folks in retailer / manufacturer organisations reformulating existing soft drinks to essentially replace natural sugar with artificial sweeteners, hide sugar behind "juice" and add in new stuff, resulting in many beverages being labelled "no added sugar" but now containing some unnatural sounding ingredients e.g.

• Concentrate - 26g sugar per 250ml diluted. [Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Blackcurrant Juice from Concentrate (23%), Acid (Citric Acid), Vitamin C, Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulphite), Colour (Anthocyanins)]
• Same brand "No Added Sugar" concentrate - 1.3g sugar per 250ml diluted. [Ingredients: Water, Blackcurrant Juice from Concentrate (35%), Acids (Malic Acid, Citric Acid), Acidity Regulators (Calcium Hydroxide, Calcium Carbonate), Sweeteners (Aspartame, Acesulfame K), Vitamin C,Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Flavouring, Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulphite), Colour (Anthocyanins)]

Which one would you rather drink? 

Given our increased desire for products containing ingredients with more natural and recognisable - in nature - origins (see related article here), it's hardly surprising that people reject many "no added sugar" variations because of concerns over what's now in their favourite drinks.

The negative message "No Added Sugar" conveys (a key insight I unearthed following consumer research into "no added sugar" chocolate back in 2007) and the odd resulting ingredient bedfellows make it ultimately a hard sell to consumers.

Moving to a "total sugar reduction" goalpost

Companies would be well advised to look more fundamentally at what they are offering consumers! Instead of (just) rolling out "no added sugar" versions of existing products, why not instead develop great tasting soft drink alternatives that are green on traffic lights but don't contain a bunch of weird (sounding) ingredients?  It's not rocket science folks. A little tea beverage startup that my partner - Dr Hua He - and I run has proved that a soft drink can be developed that tastes great, is low in sugar ("green" on traffic lights), is reasonably priced and contain no artificial (sounding) ingredients....and all done within a small budget. [Check out how Tg Green Teas was developed on drinktg.com.]

We need  to change our focus from the somewhat arbitrary "no added sugar" goalpost to a "total sugar reduction" one (like was done on the salt reduction campaign a few years ago). This helps to reduce the level of "ingredient fiddling" and might just result in the "tipping point" that we - consumers, lobby groups, interested parties like me - all crave i.e. a meaningful reduction in daily sugar consumption! 

Front of pack labelling must be made mandatory

I support wholeheartedly another of Jamie's demands, namely making front of pack nutritional labelling MANDATORY. We did it for our little startup tea beverage. Why can't everyone else?
It's really irksome to see for example Coca-Cola owned Innocent's just launched "Bubbles range not carrying a front of pack nutritional "traffic light" - this after their parent company in the UK committed to front-of-pack labelling on their drinks. Innocent's representative at the UK Soft Drink Industry conference (which Action on Sugar also attended) mumbled to me something about "not having room on the front of pack". Huh? The subsequent Twitter exchange (below) is perhaps even more illuminating. 

Should we give manufacturers and retailers a "carrot" to really fix their shelves and/or product offers?

Retailers are understandably nervous about the short term sales effect from re-fitting their shelves with healthier drinks as the consumer trial & adoption process does take time. Perhaps retailers could receive a corporate tax rebate or a taxable revenue reduction to cover the short-term sales hit. If this is not palatable nor workable, perhaps government could reduce VAT to 0% on food & drink that are "green" on nutritional traffic lights - even for a period of time - so making healthier choices cheaper and more appealing to trial (and hopefully adopt). 

These are only two examples of positive alternatives to "sugar taxes" - or done in tandem with the ones suggested by Jamie - that could remove the "nanny state" tag from some important changes to our drinks' choices that are needed now if we are to solve the obesity crisis.