The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy is a sugar tax on pre-packaged soft drinks that came into force in April 2018. It was designed to reduce sugar consumption in beverages and improve public health by encouraging manufacturers to reformulate products with lower sugar content.
Official outcomes to date show that the levy has been effective at reducing sugar content: average sugar in taxed beverages has fallen by nearly half since the introduction, leading to reductions in calories consumed and associated improvements in children’s health, among others, lower rates of tooth decay and obesity-related problems. Consumer acceptance has remained strong, and overall soft drink sales volumes have grown, reflecting demand for lower-sugar alternatives.
The UK government has now announced that the sugar tax will be extended to more high-sugar products, including pre-packaged milk-based drinks and milk alternatives with added sugar, and to lower the sugar threshold from 5 g to 4.5 g per 100 ml. These changes will take effect on 1 January 2028, giving manufacturers time to reformulate products to avoid the levy.
This extension is expected to bring additional drinks into scope, for example flavoured milk, sweetened yoghurt drinks and chocolate milk drinks. Plain, unsweetened milk and milk-alternative drinks are not and will not be included.
Across the European Union, there is no harmonised, EU-wide sugar tax, but several member states already impose national excise duties on sugar-sweetened beverages, such as France, Norway and Belgium, with varying structures and rates. Discussion at EU level about broader sugary drink taxation has occurred, including studies suggesting health benefits of an EU-wide approach, but any bloc-wide levy would require political agreement among member states.