Report on the design development, implementation and effects of the soda tax applied in France since July 2018.

Report: In order to promote healthier diets, public authorities are taking action to better inform consumers, encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional composition of their products, and control the marketing of these products. In recent years, the taxation of foods and beverages with unhealthy nutritional profiles has been one of the measures attracting interest. Taxing sugary drinks, or the “soda tax”, is one of the measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO 2022). In France, a soda tax was introduced in January 2012. Modified in July 2018, it is now indexed to the added sugar content in the drink (Ministry of Public Action and Accounting 2018). At a time when other countries are considering whether to introduce or optimize such a measure, this change provides an opportunity to learn from its development, implementation and effects on supply and consumption. This is the perspective behind the Soda-Tax research project (2019-2023), coordinated by the Ecole des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP) in collaboration with the Paris School of Economics, the Institut National de la Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (INRAE), the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord (USPN), and Nantes Université. This project was co-funded by the Ligue Contre le Cancer as part of the Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique (IReSP) general call for projects – prevention and health promotion component 2018. This report summarizes the results of the research. Some of them have already been published. Other results will be submitted in the coming months to scientific journals whose peer review process could in some cases lead them to evolve. These results are therefore communicated here on a preliminary basis, with the dissemination of this report intended to inform the steering of the measure and the interested parties in a more timely manner.

Author(s)

Yann Le Bodo, Françoise Jabot, Eric Breton, Fabrice Etilé, Sébastien Lecocq, Christine Boizot-Szantai, Chantal Julia, Marine Friant-Perrot

Publisher(s)
  • Zenodo
Date of publication
  • 2024
Keywords
  • Taxe soda
  • France
Issuing body(s)
  • EHESP
Pages
  • 71 p.
Version
  • 1