Products soon to be taxed according to their calories

Should we go so far as to tax a little more fatty and sweet products to fight obesity? This idea seriously crosses the minds of officials at Bercy who are considering this taxation among other avenues. The stated objective: to curb the additional cost linked to the pathologies associated with junk food, such as obesity and overweight. These increase the risk of other diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The Treasury Department has assessed in a publication the consequences of obesity on the economy: “the social cost of overweight was around 20 billion euros or 1% of GDP in 2012, which represents an amount comparable to that of alcohol and tobacco”.

To fight against obesity, nutritional taxation seems justified, points out the Treasury report, “in particular as regards sugar, by the strong impact on obesity caused by its consumption”. Judging that the tax on sugary drinkshad a limited impact on the behavior of the French, Bercy suggests another option: “tax products beyond a certain level of calories, as was done in Mexico from 2014, or according to their quality nutritional “.

The level of taxation could be 20%, suggests the Treasury, which cites the example of the United States: “Various studies on the American population have shown that taxes on sodas representing 20% ​​of the price led to a drop of 3.5 % of consumption while at a lower level (1% to 8% of the price), they have no significant impact “.

Other Treasury measures to prevent overweight and change behavior

In order to prevent obesity, other measures could be encouraged, Bercy still judges. For example: “carry out more targeted prevention campaigns”, “limit or even ban advertisements intended for children promoting products whose excess consumption can be harmful to health” or even “reinforce thenutritional labeling“.

Read also: A report proposes to increase the soda tax

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