Nutrition body rejects fat tax

Last week the Lancet​ said it was time for government intervention, claiming the food industry’s voluntary schemes to deal with the nation’s excessive fat intake are not working.

The editorial has met with a big backlash from the food industry, which fears a fat tax similar to those in Hungary and Denmark.

BNF director general Professor Judith Buttriss said: “We agree that the obesity epidemic will not be reversed without government leadership, and this has begun through initiatives such as Change4Life and partnership working via the Responsibility Deal​.”

But she added: “There is currently little evidence to support taxation approaches.​

Tackling obesity​

“A combination of interventions involving both energy in and energy out is likely to be most successful in tackling obesity. We hope that an integrated approach will be taken in the government’s obesity framework. ​

“Voluntary schemes, such as reformulation activities and labelling schemes, have the potential to play a useful part but consumers have to play their part too.”​

Brian Stein, chief executive of Ginsters producer Samworth Brothers, said producers were working to reduce saturated fats and salt in their products, but this had an impact on flavour as well as costs.

He told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “It’s very difficult. There is a lot of work going on, but you are caught in this situation where people are very demanding about this, but they don’t want to pay any more.​

“We are working very hard in that area and hopefully in the very near future we will start making some statements.”​

He added: “We’ve made significant reductions in salt. But my nervousness at the moment is that in one or two areas we might have gone too far.​

The balance right​

“It’s all very well saying corporately this is what the country wants, then people stop buying your food because there is no taste to it. You’ve got to be careful and get the balance right.”​

In May a tax on salt, alcohol, sugar and saturated fats was proposed by Sir Nicholas Wald, director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine in London.

Hungary plans to introduce a fat tax next month which will target high fat, sugar or salt content. The tax is expected to raise €70m a year.

Earlier this year, Denmark introduced a saturated fat tax which lead to significant increases in the prices of butter, margarine and whipped cream.