• Consumption: French fries, buns and soft drinks with less sugar, salt and fat: this will change our shopping cart

The creation of a possible tax on the so-called junk food that the newly created Ministry of Consumption is studying generates many doubts within the food and beverage sector. The idea of ​​pricing such products was already in the PSOE-Podemos pact, which contemplated the possibility of "reviewing the taxation of ultraprocessed or high-fat foods and sugars." Last Sunday Alberto Garzón, head of Consumer Affairs, reiterated that his department is studying this measure.

From Fiab, the Federation of Food and Beverage Industries, criticize a possible tax increase "to some foods with the argument of improving public health." "We consider that the terms 'food' and 'garbage' are incompatible," says Mauricio García de Quevedo, general manager of the employer.

«There is no scientific evidence that such measures are effective since habits and behaviors are not changed since taxation. We consider, therefore, that this type of measure has a collection nature that only has the effect of reducing the income of citizens, especially those with the most disadvantaged income, ”he adds.

Irene Vilà, an expert at EAE Bussiness School, says that assessing food that can be harmful in the long term is something that other countries, such as France or the United Kingdom, already do with the tax on sugary drinks. "It is a way to encourage the sector to take out its healthiest versions," says the expert, who recalls that some soft drinks companies already bill more with their light or zero versions than with the classic versions.

From Fiab they remember, on the other hand, that health problems "depend on many other factors related to healthy lifestyle habits", not only with food. "There has never been, as now, an offer of products so safe, varied and adapted to the tastes of consumers," they declare.

Sensitivity

Restoration Brands, an association that includes dozens of restaurant chains such as Telepizza, La Mafia, Knee, McDonalds or KFC, believes that this announcement “will necessarily deepen the dialogue and study (already existing) between administration and the private sector to reach effective measures to reduce obesity ».

According to Paula Nevado, secretary general of the association, "any issue related to food deserves to be treated with sensitivity and should not encourage debates without rigor or the use of inaccurate terminology." «Let's remember our grandmothers: 'with food you don't play' . Let's not banal food or its lack with adjectives without scientific basis, ”he explains.

Other sources consulted agree on the difficulty, first of all, of defining what is junk food or fast food. The association of consumer companies, Aecoc, has a white paper in which the different categories of products are defined according to their nutritional profile, but, according to sources in the sector, «nobody wants to put the product that manufactures or sells a product negative adjective, nobody wants to define their product as fast food or ultraprocessed ».

In addition, these sources indicate that "if the position on the game and the betting houses is clearer, in relation to this supposed rate it is not so much." "It's all very ethereal and not very concrete," they say. "We still don't know what measures are going to be approved, how they are going to affect and how these concepts are going to be defined," they say.

They agree that this rate, in any case, should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. Nevado also recalls that there are already initiatives in this regard, and that many food and beverage companies and manufacturers have voluntarily adhered to the so-called food reformulation plan, promoted by Health over a year ago and that aims to reduce the amounts of sugar, Salt and fat in food.

The precedent to this possible rate on junk food would be in the sugary drinks approved by Catalonia two years ago. Almost the entire sector criticized this tax by considering that it was merely collection. From Anfabra, the employer of the refreshing drinks, they considered that it demonizes a sector and harms the companies affected.

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  • United Kingdom
  • We can
  • PSOE
  • France
  • Catalonia
  • Alberto Garzón

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