Chocolate, cakes and biscuits should be taxed if they contain too many calories, health campaigners say.
Action on Sugar and Action on Salt are calling for a law similar to the fizzy drink sugar tax to be applied to high-calorie foods.
Processed snacks should be limited to how many calories they can have per 100g before manufacturers are forced to pay extra to sell them, they argue.
The groups say cutting back sugar is not enough to tackle obesity – two thirds of adults are now overweight in the UK as well as almost a third of children.
Applying a similar calorie tax in the UK to one used in Mexico could raise the cost of a pack of McVities milk chocolate digestives – which contain 495kcal per 100g – from £1.50 to £1.62. By the same rule a 400g jar of Nutella could increase from £2.90 to £3.13, or a 500ml tub of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream from £3 to £3.24
‘The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy has been remarkable and unique in that it allows for significant product reformulation by manufacturers in order to avoid paying the levy,’ said the campaign groups’ chairman, Professor Graham MacGregor.
‘The same could be achieved in creating a levy to reduce excess calories but we need a firm commitment from HM Treasury and The Department of Health and Social Care to make this a reality.’
The campaigners haven’t suggested what a suitable amount of calories would be but gave the example of a tax in Mexico where the limit is 275kcal per 100g.
This is placed on foods including sweets and chocolate, and if manufacturers go over the limit they pay eight per cent more tax on the products.
Applying the same rule in the UK could raise the cost of a pack of McVities milk chocolate digestives – which contain 495kcal per 100g – from £1.50 to £1.62.
By the same rule a 400g jar of Nutella could increase from £2.90 to £3.13, or a 500ml tub of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream from £3 to £3.24.
The above estimates – based on Tesco online prices – assume the eight per cent tax rise would be added directly onto the items’ shelf prices.
Fatty foods like biscuits and cakes are just as bad as sugar at adding extra junk calories into people’s diets, say experts who want a tax like the one on fizzy drinks to be applied to foods which are too high in calories (stock image)
The reasoning behind the move, the campaigners say, is that both fat and sugar should be targeted because fat contributes so many calories to people’s diets.
Sugar is already being targeted by Public Health England in a scheme calling on companies to voluntarily cut their sugar content back by 20 per cent by 2020.
But Katharine Jenner, campaign director at the Action groups, said: ‘Manufacturers are simply not doing enough.
‘If the government is really committed to helping… they need to tackle the food industry and a feasibility study needs to be undertaken without delay.
‘An “excess calorie levy” would encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of their unhealthy foods and, most importantly, tackle the thousands who suffer the consequences of a poor diet, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer.’
The proposed levy would follow in the footsteps of the sugar tax, which saw soft drinks manufacturers face paying more if they refused to reformulate their drinks.
Companies including Coca Cola now have to pay an extra 18p per litre in tax if their product contains more than 5g of sugar per 100ml. If it’s more than 8g the added tax rises to 24p per 100ml.
This led to drinks including Fanta, Lucozade, Dr Pepper and Vimto being recreated to reduce the sugar content and avoid the tax.
The tax raised £340million in its first year, Professor MacGregor said, which the Government has pledged to spend on improving children’s health.
And the campaigners argued reformulating foods like cakes and biscuits is ‘easily achievable’.
They backed this up with research showing fat content in chocolate cakes on sale in the UK varies widely, from 12.2g sugar per 100g of cake to 27.5g.
In Victoria sponge cakes there was variation from 8.5g to 24.7g, while fat in rich tea biscuits varied from 1.2g to 7.2g per 100g.
The campaigners said overweight children in the UK tend to consume between 140 and 500 calories more than they need to each day.
This is the equivalent of up to two Mars bars on top of their approximately 1,500-2,000kcal from other meals and snacks.
Being overweight or obese in childhood makes it more likely that someone will continue to be so as an adult, raising their risk of heart disease or cancer.
Roberta Alessandrini, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London added: ‘Our data shows that cakes and biscuits contain an excessive amount of fat and saturated fat which provide most of the calories in these products.
‘Calorie reduction in these products could be achieved through the addition of fruit, vegetables and whole grains that contain dietary fibre which has demonstrated positive health effects.’