EPHA on food industry taxation: “The time for a free-for-all is finished”

Last week, Monika Kosinska, the secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), engaged industry in a debate about the worthiness and effectiveness of taxes on unhealthier foods to spur reformulation and healthier eating.

At the Nutrition and Lifestyle conference, Kosinska affirmed that only via taxation can both industry and consumers change entrenched nutritional ways that she believes are causing health problems so burdensome they are no longer sustainable by national healthcare systems.

Taxation needs to address 'the three As', she said: Affordability, availability and accessibility if chronic diseases and obesity are to be tackled.