Jamie Oliver says sugar tax should extend to flavoured milks

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has told a select committee that there is “some logic” to extending the sugar tax to milk products, which he says are jam-packed with additives and sugar."

Alongside chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Oliver showed the committee two sweet milk-based drinks that respectively contained nine and 10 teaspoons of sugar.

The chefs were giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

They also highlighted the negative impact of buy-one-get-one-free deals, saying “they make you buy more, eat more, waste more.” They said that “food companies should only be allowed to offer such deals on junk food if they did an equal number of promotions on fruit and vegetables.

Oliver and Fearnley-Whittingstall also praised the sugar tax, saying it is a “tax for good” but warned that it should be used “vary sparingly”.

Oliver said: "I fought tooth and nail for the monies from this tax to be a progressive force for good.”

"This money was ring-fenced and something like a quarter of a billion pounds is going into schools for breakfast clubs and new sports, and that feels pretty good.

"This is a tax for good - it is designed to give to the most disadvantaged communities."