EU plans as well sweet for overall health activists

The document was published by PHE alongside recommendations by the Government’s scientific advisors for people to halve their sugar consumption, following similar advice by the World Health Organisation.

Experts in Brussels said the decision to lift quotas had been made without a proper review of the potential impact of the move on public health. They want the current scheme to remain in place until officials have reviewed whether removing the limits could end up worsening diseases such as obesity.

The EU’s reform to sugar quotas has been backed by food and drink firms. Tate & Lyle, which refines cane sugar from tropical countries, says the existing system threatens its operation in the UK because it favours beet sugar from the EU.

Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University London, said the decision to lift the sugar production quotas in 2017 should be “reviewed” in light of the advice by British scientists and the WHO.

Dorota Fienkiewicz of the European Public Health Alliance, a Brussels-based coalition of health groups including the Royal College of Nursing, added: “There was never actually a proper health impact assessment. In the end the industry has an upper hand, putting on the table the economic argument, especially in a time of crisis.

“The price of sugar will go down because everyone can produce as much as they want.

“That would mean that food and drink producers can just put it into their products and people buy it cheaply and consume it more – then we would have more problems related to non-communicable diseases.”

The warning comes amid growing scrutiny of sugar levels in food and drink. Campaigners warn that high consumption of the ingredient is causing diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

However, the food and drink industry insists the causes of obesity are “far wider” than sugar.

A spokesman for the European Commission said the UK Government wanted the quotas lifted even earlier than 2017, having argued that they distort markets, drive prices of supermarket products and “artificially increase some producers’ profits while damaging other businesses.”

EU plans as well sweet for overall health activists