WHO recommends sugar taxes to improve global health strategies

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reiterated its recommendations for member states to impose sugar taxes and reduce levies on healthier food options. Despite updated guidelines released in June, domestic proposals for sugar taxation have stalled. The primary focus is on increasing taxes on sugar-sweetened and energy drinks.

WHO suggests that governments worldwide support healthy diets through taxation and incentives. The recommendations are based on numerous studies indicating the effectiveness of taxing sugary and unhealthy food items, alongside encouraging subsidies for foods that promote a healthy diet. An unhealthy diet poses significant global health risks, being a key element of the WHO’s recommendations since they were first introduced in 2016.

Three main strategies are proposed:
1. Taxing beverages containing sugar and artificial sweeteners.
2. Taxing unhealthy food items.
3. Subsidizing foods that support a healthy diet with various incentives.

The recommendations stress that all non-alcoholic drinks with free sugars—including soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices, sweetened teas, flavored waters, and milk drinks—should be taxed. Additionally, it urges member states to adopt policies that impose taxes on foods that contribute to poor dietary habits.

In Iceland, an earlier sugar tax established in 2013 was removed two years later due to its contentious nature and perceived lack of effectiveness, resulting in only a minor price decrease for taxed products. The discourse surrounding a new sugar tax has surfaced again, as health authorities continue to advocate for measures to reduce sugar consumption, despite resistance from various stakeholders opposing any form of food taxation.