Estimating the potential impact of the Australian government’s reformulation targets on household sugar purchases

Table 2 Modelled impact of the Australian sugar reformulation targets on changes to sugar purchases (g/d per capita), by income level

	Mean sugar purchases across targeted food categories (g/d per capita)^b,c
Income level^a	Current	Reformulated to meet targets^d	Mean difference (current – targets applied)
Low	11.64	10.63	1.01
Middle	10.30	9.42	0.88
High	9.17	8.41	0.75

^aThe OECD-modified equivalence scale was applied to calculate equivalised household income (adjusting for household size and age of household members). Three income groups (low, middle and high) were then generated by splitting households into three groups of approximately equal numbers. The three household income groups (low: <$28,750 per year, middle: $28,750 - $55,000 per year and high: >$55,000 per year) had mean incomes that were comparable to equivalised incomes for the Australian population in 2016 (low income: ≤30th percentile ≤$33,020; middle-income: 30–60th percentile: $33,021–51,324, high-income: >60th percentile ≥$51,325)
^bSE for sugar purchases (g/day per capita) not displayed as SE ≤0.01 for each mean value
^cResults are sales weighted and are projected to the Australian population using sample weights provided by NielsenIQ
^dFoods with per 100g sugar values at or below the target retained their sugar content, whereas foods with per 100g sugar values above the target had the sugar content replaced with the sugar target

ISSN: 1479-5868