Taxing Snack Foods: Manipulating Diet Quality or Financing Information Programs?

The public health impacts of a fat tax

“…Mytton et al (2007) estimates that the ensuing variations in ischemic heart disease would lead to the avoidance of between 900 and 1,000 premature deaths every year. Whilst many 2 studies (eg Chouinard et al;Kuchler et al; nd that the impacts of a scal intervention on consumption are likely to be modest, these authors stress that a fat tax would be a useful tool to generate a revenue that could be allocated to prevention or information campaigns. In this vein and using Danish data, Jensen and Smed (2007) investigate the e ects of nutrient-and food-based taxes, coupled with subsidies in order to produce revenue-neutral scenarios.…”

U.S. Food Policy and Obesity

“…A tax on a class of foods that are energy dense and deemed 'unhealthy' (e.g., soda and chips) would make 'unhealthy' foods more expensive relative to 'healthy' foods such that consumers would substitute away from consumption of 'unhealthy' foods and into consumption of 'healthy' foods. Others have argued that such pricing policies would have little effect on food consumption, and hence obesity and may also be regressive (Schroeter, Lusk, and Tyner 2007;Kuchler, Tegene and Harris 2004;Gelbach, Klick, and Strattman 2007;Allais, Bertail, and Nichèle 2010). It has also been suggested that even if a tax on a particular food is ineffective at reducing consumption of 'unhealthy' foods, the tax revenues that are generated from the tax could be used to fund public information programs and other obesity-reducing strategies (Jacobson and Brownell 2000;Kuchler, Tegene, and Harris 2005;Brownell and Frieden 2009).…”

“…One set of policies to be considered are taxes on particular foods, farm commodities as ingredients of food (e.g., sugar), or nutrients (e.g., trans fats) that affect obesity. Such policies generally are found to have small effects on food consumption, obesity and overall nutrition and health; to be regressive; and to enhance government revenue but sometimes with large social welfare costs (e.g., Kuchler, Tegene, and Harris 2004;Chouinard et al 2007). However, Okrent and Alston (2012) found that taxes on calories would be comparatively efficient as a means of reducing obesity, and would yield significant net social benefits.…”

Determining the impact of food price and income changes on body weight

“…The role of the federal government in managing obesity has thus far been limited to information distribution (Kuchler et al, 2005). However, several recent bills have been passed to discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods by increasing the effective price to consumers.…”

“…The high-calorie tax is not only a domestic issue; other countries are addressing increased obesity by taxes. For example, in addition to standardizing labeling of fat and sugar content in processed foods, the UK is considering the introduction of different value added taxes for foods with poor nutritional standards (British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News, 2004; Agence France-Presse (AFP), 2004; Kuchler et al, 2005).…”