Sugar campaigners highlight cheap ‘sharing packs’ of confectionary

CAMPAIGNERS HAVE called for a 20 per cent sales tax on confectionery as well as a complete ban on price promotions in response to retailers making larger ‘sharing packs’ better value than smaller sizes.

Action on Sugar (AoS) said some chocolate confectionery sharing bags contained 29 teaspoons of sugar – four times an adult’s maximum daily sugar intake.

However, more than one in five adults eat the sharing bags alone, in one go, with the figure rising to 35 per cent among 16 to 24-yearolds, a survey for AoS found.

Confectionery consumption is the second-highest contributor to sugar intake in children after soft drinks.

AoS said the removal of price promotions on high-sugar products could cut almost two teaspoons or 7g of sugar on average from every individual’s diet per day.

At the time of its survey in December and this month, AoS found supermarket chains Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op and Waitrose were all offering price promotions on some sharing bags, selling them for as little as £1 and making them comparatively better value for money than smaller pack sizes.

The campaign group is calling on the Government to “immediately revise and strengthen” its childhood obesity plan.

AoS chairman and professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London Graham MacGregor said: “It is shocking that food companies are being allowed to exploit consumers by manipulating them into purchasing larger-size bags of chocolate confectionery on the cheap.

“Theresa May is letting companies get away with this.”