Taxes on Sugary Beverages Are Working. Should They Be Placed on Ultra-processed Foods?

Colombia became one of the first nations in the world to tax UPFs. The US has yet to follow suit

Back in January, researchers found that raising the prices of sugary sodas, coffees, teas and energy drinks and fruit drinks led to a decrease in the purchases of those drinks. Specifically, increasing the prices of said beverages by an average of 31% reduced consumer purchases by a third.

The study, published in JAMA Health Forum, looked at per-ounce tax plans by ZIP code in Boulder, Colorado; Oakland, California; Philadelphia; Seattle; and San Francisco. Nine US jurisdictions have implemented some form of consumer tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. The drinks are taxed in various ways, including excise taxes, sales taxes and import/export taxes. Excise taxes, the most common type of tax implemented on sugary beverages, are placed on distributors, who then pass the cost of the tax — usually as a flat rate per ounce — on to consumers. Some US cities have implemented sales taxes on sugary beverages at checkout, typically at a rate of 1 to 2%. As for import/export taxes, those taxes are applied to specific ingredients in the drink, like sugar, before they are processed.

“For every 1% increase in price, we found a 1% decrease in purchases of these products,” study author Scott Kaplan, an assistant professor of economics at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, told CNN. “The decrease in consumer purchases occurred almost immediately after the taxes were put in place and stayed that way over the next three years of the study.”