Government must deliver on sugary drinks promise

It’s been 16 years since the country’s major beverage producers Coca-Cola Amatil NZ and Frucor Suntory signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministries of Education and Health to remove full sugar carbonated beverages and energy drinks from secondary schools by 2009.

It has been five years since the New Zealand Beverage Council, representing the majority of the country’s non-alcoholic beverage industry (including Frucor Suntory, Red Bull, Better Drinks Co, Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Amatil NZ), introduced an overarching policy committing their members to only sell bottled water to primary and intermediate schools and to not sell sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks or energy drinks to secondary schools.

These initiatives show the beverage industry acknowledges the harm of obesity and poor dental health caused by sugary drinks. The industry supports the reduction of that harm by not selling their beverages directly to schools.

Despite these restrictions a recent survey found 73 percent of students are still able to buy sugary drinks at school. Alongside soft drinks, 30 percent of primary schools, half of intermediate schools, and 100 percent of high schools had flavoured milk or juice available to buy.

It is no surprise the problems the industry restrictions sought to address have not improved. Sugary drinks cause many health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, and poor dental health. Focusing just on dental health statistics alone provides ample reason to take the problem of sugary drinks in schools seriously.

More than 135,000 kids – over half of the country’s children – are overdue for dental check-ups. Of these children, 2,157 are awaiting specialist care which is likely to require a general anaesthetic. More than 8,400 children require a general anaesthetic for multiple tooth extractions each year, costing our health system over $32 million for the general anaesthetic costs alone. Our dental system is failing to keep up with ever-increasing demand.

Sugar intake is the primary cause of childhood dental caries, and sugary drinks contribute over a quarter of the total dietary sugar consumed by New Zealand children. Limiting sugary drink consumption in children will likely reduce the decay of thousands of children’s teeth, reduce the pain and anxiety children experience, reduce the pressure on oral health waiting lists, and save many tens of millions of dollars.

Why are sugary drinks still widely available in our schools? First, sugary drinks are often made available by businesses that on-sell sugary drinks from manufacturers to schools. In other words, many school canteens are contracted out to private operators. These private operators usually buy drinks directly from supermarkets, bypassing the drinks wholesalers. The result is that the agreements of the drinks industry have little influence on what drinks are being supplied and sold to children in New Zealand schools.

Second, restrictions on the sale of sugary drinks to schools fail to include many types of sugary drinks, such as juice, flavoured milk, and sports drinks, which are increasingly popular and contain similar amounts of sugar as soft drinks. Not surprisingly, these non-carbonated sugary drinks contribute to persistently high consumption levels of sugary drinks in New Zealand.

Having identified the loopholes and concerned at the risk sugary drinks pose to children’s health, several schools have implemented water-only policies. They do not allow sugary drinks to be sold by their canteens. Unfortunately, these schools are the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of our children remain exposed to products that come with devastating long-term health consequences for them and for society.

Shortly after the 2017 election, the Government acknowledged that excess dietary sugar was a problem that needed action. The health problems – including obesity, diabetes and dental disease – were obvious. Unfortunately, five years later, not one initiative has been implemented to address this.

The food and drinks industry is sensitive to the problem. An industry taskforce has made sensible recommendations: “The Government works with schools to encourage them to adopt a water-only policy that supports the pledge made by New Zealand Beverage Council members to only supply bottled water to primary and intermediate schools.”

It is time for the Government to deliver on its promise of action. Robust policy to offer water only in primary and intermediate schools and to take sugary drinks out of secondary schools will save the health system tens of millions of dollars each year, but more importantly, reduce harm to our children.

This is an edited version of If soft drink companies can do it, why can’t government? Sugary drink sales policies in schools must be tightened, authors: Gerhard Sundborn, Simon Thorney, Loa Veatupu, Bodo Lang, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.