With a forecasted 20 percent increase in production after 2017 from reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy, the price of sugar is expected to beat the price drop of £500 per tonne to less than £300 per tonne of the past three years.
Researchers from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research at Cambridge University express their concern that governments may have to implement firmer consumption reduction goals and compliance assurance. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, warns that because the artificial highs and lows of sugar market prices over the years have been more concerned with industrial benefit rather than public good, the implications to public health may be far-reaching.
"There is a risk that ongoing and proposed measures designed to reduce sugar consumption (such as reformulation to remove sugar, taxes on sugar sweetened drinks, and marketing restrictions) could be undermined by larger trends in price and production of sugars in Europe."
Public Health England (PHE) chief nutritionist Dr Alison Tedstone points out that this study evidences the numerous influencing factors to the public's sugar consumption. Such is the alarm raised on consumption trends and habits that the PHE appealed for as much as 20 percent taxation of food and drinks that contain sugar.
Tam Fry from Action on Sugar agrees with the Cambridge experts acknowledging the impending major disaster will render a 10 percent tax on sugared drinks insignificant amidst the onslaught of cheap sugar come 2017.
A spokesperson from the government tried to assuage concerns by going back to the commercial advantage of the new policy, "The removal of EU sugar beet quotas will allow British growers to move towards competing on a level-playing field with other sugar producers around the world. We know that as a nation we consume too much sugar."
Assurance that the government remains actively concerned over public well-being was also laid out by the spokesperson.
