France looks to extend its sugar tax to processed foods
Health minister Stéphanie Rist wants a sliding-scale levy on biscuits, cakes and cereals in the 2027 budget, a move the food industry says will squeeze household spending.
France's health minister Stéphanie Rist proposed on October 1 extending the country's sugary drinks tax to processed foods, covering biscuits, cakes, sweets, spreads and breakfast cereals under a sliding scale tied to sugar content.
The measure, floated as part of France's 2027 budget, would widen a tax that has applied to sugary drinks since 2012, currently charged at €4.07 per hectolitre on beverages with up to 5kg of added sugar. Rist framed the extension around the cost of treating diet-related disease rather than as a straightforward revenue measure.
A sliding scale meant to push reformulation
Obesity, which leads to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, comes at a cost to society.
"Obesity, which leads to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, comes at a cost to society and to the social security system," Rist said, presenting the tax as an incentive for manufacturers to cut sugar content rather than a flat levy on sweet foods.
The sliding scale would tax products more heavily as their sugar content rises, following the model already used for drinks, where the lowest-sugar beverages pay the smallest amount per hectolitre.
Food industry warns of a squeeze on households
ANIA, the French food industry trade body, opposed the plan, warning it would hit the purchasing power of French consumers, particularly lower-income households that buy a larger share of processed food. The group said the measure would be "added to the €5bn of specific taxes already weighing on the agri-food sector," arguing companies "have reached the limit of their resilience."
The proposal would need to clear France's parliament as part of the 2027 budget process, where sugar and food taxes have faced resistance in past years even when health ministries pushed for them. Other European governments have taken different routes to the same goal: Japan cut its restaurant food tax rate instead of raising it, while cities like Potsdam have taxed packaging rather than ingredients.
If adopted, manufacturers selling in France would have to recalculate pricing and, in some cases, reformulate recipes before the tax takes effect, a process that typically takes longer than the political debate over whether to levy it at all.
