ITV News Index

ComRes interviewed 2,065 British adults online between 20^th and 22^nd June 2014 about sugar on behalf of ITV News.

Date Published: 25 Jun 2014

Categories: Business | Consumer | Health | Public and communities | Retail & Consumer | UK

Description

 

Sugar

·         Most Britons cannot identify sugar when it is given a range of names used for it in supermarket foods.

·         Only three in ten people think malto dextrin (31%) is a type of sugar, while 44% say they do not know what it was. Similarly, only two in five (41%) think Liquid Maltrose was a type of sugar, while the same proportion (41%) say they don’t know.

·         More people think tapioca starch is a type of protein (24%) than think it is a type of sugar (22%).

·         On the whole, middle-aged Britons are better at correctly identifying the different substances as sugar, for example 38% of 45-64 year olds know that malto dextrin is a type of sugar, compared to only 14% of 18-24 year olds.

·         Half of Britons (51%) oppose a new tax on food and drinks which contain high levels of sugar, although a third support this (35%).

·         Four in five Britons support compulsory health warning labels of food and drinks that are high in sugar (81%), while a similar proportion (82%) support controls on advertising such products to children.

·         There is also widespread support (71%) for there being a legal maximum amount of sugar allowed in food and drinks.

o    Support for this is especially high among women: three quarters (76%) support it, compared to only two thirds of men (66%).

·         However, the public is split about whether there should be an outright ban on the sale of processed food and drinks which are high in sugar: similar proportions support (44%) as oppose (41%) this.

o    Again there is a gender divide. Men are more likely to oppose (44%) than support (41%) an outright ban, while women are more likely to support one (47%, vs 38% oppose).