Study calls for debate on ‘fat tax’

A study published this week has urged a discussion on the imposition of increased taxation on fatty foods in the UK, arguing that such a move by the government could potentially reduce the number of deaths from heart disease by up to 3,200 people every year.

Presented in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study explored the economic and health effects of the potential introduction of three different types of taxation on food products.

The first involved a tax on products high in saturated fats, the second a tax levied on a broader range of unhealthy products and the last sought to include the full effects of people switching their food choices as a result of taxes imposed.

While this third option was deemed to save the most lives, it was also believed to be the most difficult to implement, with the paper calling on the government to at least entertain the notion of extra taxation on unhealthy products.

“The success of any fat tax depends on changes in food-purchasing patterns with the outcome of a healthier diet,” Oliver Mytton, doctor at Queen’s Medical Centre and author of the study wrote, reports Bloomberg.

However, Maura Gillespie, of the British Heart Foundation, told the BBC that the organisation could not express its support for targeted food taxes, calling for further evidence of the effects of any increased taxation before the body could back such moves.