The New Zealand Beverage Council, which represents companies that sell 95% of all juice and non-alcoholic drinks, will also stop selling sugar-sweetened soft drinks and energy drinks in secondary schools.
The industry pledge was unveiled yesterday, coinciding with a major conference organised by health researchers in Auckland to make a tax on sugary drinks an issue in the September election.
One of the conference organisers, Dr Simon Thornley, hailed the pledge as ‘‘a really significant step in the right direction’’, going further than other countries.
'‘I haven’t seen it anywhere else,’’ he said.
‘‘I really applaud the intention of the document, but I think a major issue is to what extent it’s going to be followed through.’’
But Secondary Principals Association president Mike Williams said almost all schools had already stopped selling soft drinks and energy drinks.
‘‘You would be hard-pressed to find that stuff in secondary schools these days,’’ he said.
‘‘I think this is like catch-up. Maybe they have looked at their figures and seen that they are not selling much to schools anyway, so they decided they might as well get some credit for it.’’
New Zealand Principals Federation president Whetu Cormick, representing primary and intermediate schools, said most primary schools did not have tuck shops anyway, and most of those that did had already adopted water-only policies.
Research led by Dr Thornley has found that a water-only policy adopted by Yendarra Primary School in Otara in 2007 reduced tooth decay in Yendarra’s children by about one-sixth compared with nine other schools within 3km of the school.
The Ministry of Health has asked all food and drink industries to sign a pledge to ‘‘ identify and contribute solutions that will aim to help reduce rates of obesity for all children’’.
Coca-Cola, a leading member of the beverage council, has already signed that pledge.
Beverage council president Olly Munro said the new industry pledge would still allow for the sale of fruit juice as well as zero-sugar fizzy drinks in secondary schools.
Yesterday’s Fighting Sugar in Soft Drinks Symposium in Auckland was all about making sugar tax an election issue.
