Friday, September 30, 2011

Fat Tax

They have been discussed, but thus far seldom implemented. I'm talking about Fat Taxes. Although there are many proposed forms, from taxing high caloric foods to high fat foods, Denmark looks to be the first to tax foods with saturated fat. Denmark taxes fatty products - Telegraph
Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax. The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn Danish Krone (£140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10pc, and butter consumption by 15pc. "It's the first ever fat-tax," said Mike Rayner, Director of Oxford University's Health Promotion Research Group, who has long campaigned for taxes on unhealthy foods. "It's very interesting. We haven't had any practical examples before. Now we will be able to see the effects for real." The tax will be levied at 2.5 per Kg of saturated fat and will be levied at the point of sale from wholesalers to retailers.
Apparently Hungary already has a version of the fat tax where they tax "unhealthy" levels of certain things.
Hungary at the start of this month imposed a tax is on all packaged foods containing unhealthy levels of sugar, salt, and carbohydrates, as well as products containing more than 20 milligrams of caffeine per 100 milliliters of the product.

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