This weekend in Denmark, fatty foods and butter will be slapped with ‘fat tax’ in a bid to cut obesity rates and heart disease.
Following Hungary’s lead, who placed ‘fat tax’ on all unhealthy foods packed with saturated fats, sugar and salt earlier this month, Danes will have to shell out more cash if they want to eat calorific snacks.
The price spikes include 30p extra on a packet of butter, 8p on crisps and 13p on minced meat. The Danish Government are hoping the introduction of ‘fat tax’ will raise 2.3 billion Danish Krone (£140 million) and cut obesity numbers by 10%.
Despite only 10% of Danes being overweight, compared to 20% in the UK, the plans to tax 2.5% of saturated fats is going ahead to lower the obesity rate and preamature deaths.
The big fat question now is – should the UK, who the fattest population in Europe, follow suit and tax fatty foods that contributes towards thousands of lives a year?
Despite the Health Minister, Andrew Lansley so far refusing to introduce the ‘fat tax’, it might not be long before the UK get involved.
"I think we're going to have them in Britain whether Mr Lansley wants them or not, because the obesity crisis in the UK is such that we need to take more action,” Mike Raynor, Director of Oxford University’s Health Promotion Research Group, as reported by the Telegraph.