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Introduction
The current food environment is continuously highlighted as a problem for public health. And so there is a strong focus in both public policy and research circles to determine which strategies could lead to a healthier food environment.
One potential strategy that is widely recommended by public health experts is the use of fiscal/taxation policies to decrease the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. By making unhealthy foods and beverages relatively more expensive than healthy foods and beverages it is hoped that this would alter the composition of the average diet in a favorable manner.
This is based on economic theory and evidence showing that most foods are relatively price “inelastic”. This means that increases in the prices of particular foods can be expected to lead to reductions in the purchase of those foods.
But there have also been some concerns raised about the potential effectiveness of strategies aimed at taxing a certain nutrient (e.g. sugar) or a group of foods. There are worries that such policies wouldn’t lead to healthier diets; with people either not changing behavior or just substituting in other processed foods that industry has formulated to avoid a specific nutrient tax.
So what does the current evidence say?
With a number of countries having implemented a range of taxes or health levies, what lessons can we learn from these? And what does the best public health nutrition currently tell us about the likely effectiveness of different policies or interventions?
To get to some evidence-based answers, Dr. Kathryn Backholer, an Associate Professor at Deakin University, is on the podcast to discuss the current state of the evidence on various taxes and levies on different nutrients and unhealthy foods.
Related resources
- Related episodes:
- Further Reading:
- Sacks et al., 2021 – Do taxes on unhealthy foods and beverages influence food purchases?
- Backholer & Martin, 2017 – Sugar-sweetened beverage tax: the inconvenient truths
- Backholer et al., 2018 – Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in 2018: a year of reflections and consolidation
- Zorbas et al., 2020 – Getting the Price Right: How Nutrition and Obesity Prevention Strategies Address Food and Beverage Pricing Within High-Income Countries
- What are ‘commercial determinants of health’?
- What types of ‘taxation’ interventions/policies are potential options?
- What is the proposed mechanism by which this helps?
- Taxes on SSBs have now been introduced in over 40 countries: Results?
- Do changes in price of food products lead to changes in consumption?
- Ultimately, how is the overall dietary pattern and health impacted?
- Unintended consequences of policy
- Factors that will impact how effective a taxation policy will likely be
- The need for multiple concurrent strategies
Guest Information
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Dr. Backholer is Co-Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition. She leads a program of research focused on the social, commercial and cultural determinants of population health and is particularly interested in interdisciplinary solutions to complex public health problems.
She is based out of Deakin’s Institute for Health Transformation in the School of Health and Social Development. Dr. Backholer is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and a Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia (FPHAA).
Danny Lennon has a master’s degree (MSc.) in Nutritional Sciences from University College Cork, and he is the founder of Sigma Nutrition.
Danny is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Sports Nutrition Association, the global regulatory body responsible for the standardisation of best practice in the sports nutrition profession.
Introduction to this Episode
The current food environment is continuously highlighted as a problem for public health. And so there is a strong focus in both public policy and research circles to determine which strategies could lead to a healthier food environment.
One potential strategy that is widely recommended by public health experts is the use of fiscal/taxation policies to decrease the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. By making unhealthy foods and beverages relatively more expensive than healthy foods and beverages it is hoped that this would alter the composition of the average diet in a favorable manner.
This is based on economic theory and evidence showing that most foods are relatively price “inelastic”. This means that increases in the prices of particular foods can be expected to lead to reductions in the purchase of those foods.
But there have also been some concerns raised about the potential effectiveness of strategies aimed at taxing a certain nutrient (e.g. sugar) or a group of foods. There are worries that such policies wouldnʼt lead to healthier diets; with people either not changing behavior or just substituting in other processed foods that industry has formulated to avoid a specific nutrient tax.
So what does the current evidence say?
With a number of countries having implemented a range of taxes or health levies, what lessons can we learn from these? And what does the best public health nutrition currently tell us about the likely effectiveness of different policies or interventions?
To get to some evidence-based answers, Dr. Kathryn Backholer, an Associate Professor at Deakin University, is on the podcast to discuss the current state of the evidence on various taxes and levies on different nutrients and unhealthy foods.
Connection to Previous Episodes
363: Public Health Policy vs. Personal Responsibility: Evidence vs. Ideology
- In this episode Danny and Alan discussed the evidence for public health nutrition interventions, how health inequalities are driven by socioeconomic factors, and how ideology and simplistic rhetoric about “personal responsibility” can get in the way.
- This included a discussion of different policy types that require government regulation, including the use of taxes. You can find the episode page here.
428: Food Environments
- In this episode the Sigma team discuss the concept of a “food environment”, a term used to describe the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural contexts in which choices are made about acquiring, preparing and consuming food.
- The episode included a discussion of exactly which environmental conditions impact food choices and the evidence that exists for public health policy that may address the problematic aspects of modern food environments.
- You can find the episode page here.