UK set to introduce new sugar rules for drinks
The government is considering whether to enforce stricter rules for sugary drinks in the UK as part of its Soft Drinks Industry Levy.
Answering on behalf of the Treasury in a written Q&A, Labour MP James Murray confirmed that the government was looking at several measures as part of an ongoing consultation.
“At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced her intention to review the Soft Drinks Industry levy (SDIL) – which has incentivised producers to remove almost half (46%) of the sugar in relevant drinks – to further drive product reformulation,” he said.
“The ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation, published on 28 April 2025, therefore sets out proposals to reduce the minimum sugar content threshold at which the levy applies, and to remove the current exemptions for milk-based drinks and milk substitute drinks with added sugar.”
New threshold proposed
The UK officially announced a sugar level of 5g per 100ml levy threshold in its 2016 Budget.
As a result of product reformulation between 2015 and 2020, the sales-weighted average total sugar content of soft drinks within the scope of the levy fell from 3.8g per 100ml to 2.1g per 100ml – a decrease of 46%.
The levy effectively created a ‘target’ of just below the 5g threshold, and products have clustered below 5g as a result. In the latest published analysis, there are 866 products between 4g and 4.9g of total sugar per 100ml, of which 221 lie between 4g and 4.5g.
The government is now consulting on reducing the minimum sugar threshold to 4g as it believes this would encourage further reformulation of the products that currently lie between 4 and 4.9g of sugar per 100ml, by setting a more ambitious sugar reduction target.
Reducing the minimum sugar threshold to 4g would capture an additional 17% of sales volumes (meaning drinks currently between 4g and 4.9g) of the total market of soft drinks to which SDIL would apply were it not for the current 5g minimum threshold, it said.
“The fact that over two-thirds of this market (73%) is already below 4g of sugar indicates that this lower target is achievable.
“We acknowledge that this new target asks more from the soft drinks industry, which has already achieved substantial sugar reductions. We welcome feedback on how this can be best achieved, whilst allowing appropriate time for reformulation and giving sufficient certainty to businesses to support planning.
“As with SDIL’s initial introduction, we would expect to allow two years between consultation and implementation, with changes taking effect on 1 April 2027.”
Milk-based drinks
To account for the naturally occurring sugar in the milk component of these milk-based drinks, the consultation proposes the introduction of a lactose allowance. This will be calculated based on the milk content of each drink.
The government is also consulting on the treatment of milk substitute drinks, and proposes only to extend the SDIL to milk substitutes with added sugar. In a similar fashion to the lactose allowance, drinks with sugars only released from their principal, or ‘core’ ingredient, will be out of scope of the levy.
This is to maintain consistency of treatment between milk substitute drinks and plain animal milk-based drinks, whilst bringing into SDIL milk substitutes with added sugar, including the flavoured varieties that could be consumed as alternatives to flavoured milk-based drinks.
Under these proposals, if any sugars other than those from the principal ingredient are added to a milk substitute drink, the SDIL thresholds will apply, based on total sugar content (g) per 100ml.
