National Nutrition Council looks set to endorse tax on fat

Planning of "fat tax" is already in advanced stage in Denmark

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The National Nutrition Council (VRN), an expert body under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that sees to the diet and health of the Finns, looks set to endorse the introduction of the tax on fat.
      In a letter sent to various ministries, the VRN says that its experts will be at the government’s disposal for the purpose of looking into the matter.
      According to the VRN, the tax should guide people to avoid saturated fats and the so-called “trans fats”.
      For example butter and various cheeses are significant sources of saturated fats.
      Trans fats, in turn, one can get from deep-fried foods and industrially produced cakes and pastries.
     
According to Pekka Puska, Director General of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and Chairman of the VRN, the tax in question would, among other things, curb the problem of obesity: the number of overweight children and adolescents has trebled in this country over the last 30 years.
      “At the same time more tax revenue would be brought in. The examination of this should be commenced sooner rather than later”, Puska says.
      The VRN is an impartial expert organ, in which the government, the local councils, the research field, the grocery retailers, and the food industry are all represented.
     
The discussion around the tax on fat started in Finland in September of last year after the Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen (Nat. Coalition Party) said in a Financial Times interview that he was very interested in the Danish model of a similar tax.
      In Denmark the planning of a tax targeting food products containing saturated fats has advanced quite far, but of late its implementation has been stalled because of political arm-wrestling and because of opposition from the foodstuffs industry.
      According to finance secretary Veli Auvinen from the Ministry of Finance, in Finland the ministry is following the fat tax discussion very keenly.
      “One cannot say that no research of any kind has been carried out”, he says.
      As yet, however, no official working group with regard to the matter has been set up by the Ministry of Finance.
     
The Finnish Food and Drinks Industries Federation (ETL) and the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) are opposed to the tax on fat.
      Both organisations belong to the VRN and have provided the relevant ministries with a differing opinion with regard to the "tax on fat" statement.
      In ETL’s view, the construction of an equitable taxation model on health grounds is impossible and health should be promoted through education instead.
      “Fat is not just fat, there are good fats and there are not so good fats. Some of them are beneficial to health and the classification is very difficult”, says ETL Director Tero Kallio.
     
Even Pekka Puska of the THL admits that drawing the line as to which products should be made taxable would inevitability be artificial.
      “The taxable products should be the ones containing lots of saturated fats and/or the products through which the Finns get the bulk of them.”
      In Puska’s opinion the tax could be thought to be imposed on cheeses and cream after a certain fat percentage, on butter, and on greasy cold cuts and sausages.
      Taxation of fresh meat, in turn, would not necessarily be needed, for meat only constitutes a relatively small proportion of an average Finn’s diet, Puska reasons.
     
What about the equality question? Research has shown that in the diet of those with lower incomes the portion of unhealthy products is comparatively large.
      “The tax on fat would flatten the differences in health, if it caused those with low income to start using healthier options. Education alone always reaches better those higher up in the standard of living pyramid”, Puska argues.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Planned tax on sweets to include ice cream (12.3.2010)
  Tax on sweets takes experts by surprise (1.9.2009)

Links:
  National Nutrition Council

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