PAHO Promotes the Establishment of Sweetened Beverage Consumption Reduction Targets in the Region

Lima, September 18, 2025 - The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) held a regional technical workshop to review various methodologies that Member States can use to establish their own sweetened beverage consumption reduction targets.

The meeting, held in Lima, Peru, on September 16 and 17, was attended by experts in public health and health economics, representatives of academic institutions, and government and international organizations. This meeting marks the beginning of the development of a technical tool to facilitate countries' comparative evaluation of available methodological options for defining national sweetened beverage consumption reduction targets in a clear and accessible manner.

Eric Peña Sánchez, Peru's Deputy Minister of Public Health, opened the session and emphasized: "I wish to place special emphasis on the importance of implementing public health measures that seek to reduce this risk factor, which is directly linked to the burden of non-communicable diseases and also generates a significant economic burden. It is very important that this workshop seek to identify methodological aspects that allow for the establishment of targets for reducing sweetened beverage consumption, including mechanisms such as the incorporation of taxes."

Evidence supports the application of taxes on sweetened beverages as an effective measure to reduce consumption. Still, to date, there are no quantitative target recommendations or recommended tax levels that can guide countries on the levels of reduction necessary to achieve substantive public health impacts. In response to this need, different methodological approaches were presented and analyzed during the workshop that could be used as a basis for establishing such targets, so that each country can adapt them to its specific context.

Among the methods discussed were options based on the fraction of obesity attributable to sweetened beverage consumption, a return to consumption levels observed in previous years, analysis of time trends, and alignment with the WHO recommendation to reduce free sugar intake to less than 10% of total caloric intake.

"The increasing consumption of sweetened beverages in the Americas represents a major public health challenge. PAHO/WHO recommends strengthening evidence-based fiscal public policies to prevent non-communicable diseases such as obesity and diabetes," said Maureen Birmingham, representative of the PAHO/WHO Peru office.

With this workshop, PAHO underscores its commitment to supporting Member States in developing effective public policies based on the best available evidence. The progress achieved during the workshop is expected to help strengthen national strategies for the prevention of obesity and non-communicable diseases, and in the future contribute to establishing a shared regional goal that will serve as a technical benchmark for the region.