Abstract

Objectives

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages in Saudi Arabia (SA) and other countries have reduced purchases of these beverages and their associated calories and sugar. However, expanding such taxes to cover a broader range of foods and nutrients may be more effective at improving overall diet quality.

Methods

We tested the effectiveness of a comprehensive, salient, tiered, nutrient-based food and beverage (FB tax (comprehensive tax) targeting all products.

Results

The nutritional quality of the shopping baskets, measured by average Nutri-Score points (ie, base scores used to determine the Nutri-Score grades from A [healthiest] to E [least healthy]), weighted by serving size, did not differ statistically between the control and current beverage tax arms. However, the comprehensive tax led to healthier baskets, improving Nutri-Score points by 0.88 (95% CI −0.07 to 1.83) relative to the control arm and 1.16 points (95% CI 0.21 to 2.11) relative to the current tax arm, which is equivalent to a 3.04% and 4.05% increase, respectively.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that a comprehensive, salient tiered FB tax has the potential to improve diet quality among SA shoppers.