Last November, Berkeley, California, one of the United States' trial cities for new policies, approved through general election the creation of a soda tax that adds $0.01 per calorie on soft drinks, in a policy created to try to halt the high obesity epidemic - and the sugar tax UK could be heading in the same direction.
The United Kingdom is one of the nations most affected by the obesity epidemic in the world, and the government and major food companies have attempted to create further conscience about this health risk, and the sugar tax UK could be the next step towards this after a major cereal brand took "sugar" off its name, and the country even had issues with the Italian government over their exports.
According to The Independent, the suggestion of the sugar tax UK came from a major government official, Life Sciences Minister George Freeman, as he was speaking at the Hay Festival earlier this week, talking about the obesity crisis in the country as 25 percent of adults in the UK are obese now, when 40 years ago this was only 3 percent - the numbers are staggering.
"I think that where there is a commercial product which confers costs on all of us as a society, as in sugar, and where we can clearly show that the use of that leads to huge pressures on social costs, then we could be looking at recouping some of that through taxation," Freeman said, according to Food Navigator, then hinting at a possible sugar tax UK. "Companies should know that if you insist on selling those products, we will tax them."
However, Metro reports that the rest of the administration has shut down claims that a sugar tax UK is currently underway, as outlets explicitly asked the country's Prime Minister, David Cameron, whether the rumors were correct - and it turns out that Freeman, a newly appointed minister, was just speaking out of turn.
Freeman is the first minister in the country to ever hint a sugar tax UK.
