'Fat tax may prevent 3,000 deaths'

A "fat tax" on unhealthy foods could prevent more than 3,000 deaths from heart attack and stroke every year in the UK, experts have said.

Some researchers are in favour of such a tax while others would prefer to see healthy foods subsidised instead.

In 2004, then prime minister Tony Blair rejected the idea for a tax on fatty foods such as cakes and biscuits, saying it would make Britain too much like a "nanny state".

The latest study involved testing different economic models to work out how a fat tax may affect people's buying habits.

Three different approaches were tried out, with the first involving a tax on foods with high levels of saturated fats, such as whole butter, cheese, cakes and pastries and puddings. The second was to apply a tax to foods with a high "unhealthiness score" - known as the SSCg3d score. For example, spinach scored -12, while chocolate digestive biscuits scored +29. The third approach was to introduce a tax on a wider range of products with the aim of cutting the intake of fat, salt and sugar.

Once the results were analysed, the first approach (applying VAT to foods high in saturated fats) was found to increase salt intake. This, the authors said, could actually increase the number of deaths from heart disease and stroke. It would also increase weekly household food expenditure by 3.2%.

The second approach - taxing foods with a high SSCg3d score - would prevent more than 2,000 deaths a year and add 4% to weekly food bills, the study found.

The third approach was found to be the most effective in reducing the number of deaths. It would prevent up to 3,200 deaths from heart disease and stroke every year, equivalent to a drop of 1.7% across the nation. Food expenditure would go up by 4.6% or 67p per week, or around £2 billion annually across the UK.

The authors noted that any moves to tax unhealthy foods are likely to be strongly resisted by the food industry. They also acknowledged that other factors - such as taste - affected people's buying habits.

The research was led by Dr Oliver Mytton at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

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