The Lithuanian government has collaborated with food manufacturers to reduce salt and sugar content in products as it says it won’t introduce a sugar tax.
Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Orkla are among the companies that have signed up to the initiative as the government aims to promote healthier lifestyles.
As part of the agreement, the companies will make changes to their production voluntarily. Health minister Aurelijus Veryga hopes other companies will join the agreement in the future.
Speaking to the Baltic News Service about a proposed sugar tax, he said: “The goal of the taxes, which were not proposed by the government but were in advance discussed in the society, was in essence what we did with today’s agreements – lower content of sugar in food products.
“The countries that went this way had the same objective – producers that did not want to raise prices for their products reduced the content of sugar.
“I am glad that we in Lithuania can demonstrate a different way of solving this through an agreement with producers to do the same without any taxes.”
The Lithuanian government said that people in the country consume 40% more salt, 39% more fat and 22% more sugar than is recommended by the World Health Organisation.
According to Mindaugas Snarskis, the chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Food Industry, producers are faced with the difficult task of providing the most favourable products for health, while preserving their flavour characteristics and avoiding significant changes in prices.
He said: “We are pleased that we are invited to become partners in this initiative because we believe that a partnership between business and government is one of the most important conditions for achieving successful results.”
The UK, Ireland, the Philippines, South Africa and Estonia are due to implement sugar taxes this year.
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