UK urged to tax sugar and salt, cut meat eating by a third

(July 15): The UK should adopt a broad tax on sugar and salt sales and improve food equality as diets take a toll on the economy and people’s health, recommendations in a government-commissioned review show. Britain should introduce the world’s first sugar and salt reformulation tax and use some of the proceeds to expand free school meals and support diets in deprived communities, according to the National Food Strategy. It stopped short on recommending a levy on meat, while calling for measures to cut its consumption by 30% in the next decade. Britain is facing an array of food challenges — from growing obesity to concerns about providing the poorest children with nutritious food — and has already introduced a tax on sugar in soft drinks. At the same time, the country is trying to reduce agriculture’s impact on the environment, while redrawing global trade relations in the wake of Brexit. “The way we produce food is doing terrible damage to the environment and to our bodies, and ...