Poor diet is one of the biggest risk factors linked to ill health. Some campaigners have called for a tax to curb the UK’s love of unhealthy food, while others are opposed to state intervention on consumer spending habits. Should there be a “fat tax” on ultra-processed foods and would actually make people healthier?
Christopher Snowdon, the head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free-market think tank
The fiasco of Denmark’s fat tax, which was introduced in 2011 and abolished 15 months later, should have ended the conversation about taxing food to tackle obesity for good.
The short-lived experiment led to inflation, lower wages, unemployment, cross-border shopping and layers of costly bureaucracy. It was deeply unpopular across the political spectrum and
