The newly established Food Standards Scotland (FSS) admitted in a paper recently that there would be no “silver bullet” when it comes to tackling the country’s gathering obesity crisis. However, the organisation stressed radical change was necessary in order to improve the Scottish diet. Proposals put forward by the FSS include reductions in the promotion of certain foods, portion size control, and the use of taxation and regulation.

The idea of a sugar tax has made headlines this past week, not least on Monday when the NHS England CEO Simon Stevens told The Guardian about proposals to impose a 20-percent tax on sugary drinks and food in NHS cafes by 2020. The tax, according to Stevens, would not only help tackle the growing problem of obesity but also raise £20-40m a year in additional tax revenue.

Although the idea of a sugar tax in the UK is relatively new, taxes on sugary foods and soft drinks have been in place both in Finland and Hungary since 2011. The usefulness of these ‘fat taxes’ still needs to be fully assessed, according to a recent EU report, although food taxes “in general achieve a reduction in the consumption of the taxed products”, according to the report.

“We do believe that the measures we are proposing are vital pieces of the jigsaw. We’ve been missing the Scottish Dietary Goals for the last 15 years, despite all the good work that’s been done, so we believe that radical change is needed”, said FSS CEO Geoff Ogle. “Fifteen years from now, we need to be able to look back and be able to say this was the point where we started to turn round the current trend: a trend which could see Scotland with adult obesity levels at 40 percent by 2030 unfortunately, it’s that stark.”

Although taxes on foods have been shown to have a demonstrably positive effect on public health, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has expressed concerns that legislation could impact jobs. In an interview with the BBC, FDF CEO David Thomson said the measures could punish an industry that employs 34,000 people in Scotland – or 19 percent of all manufacturing jobs.

To read more about the merits of a sugar tax in Europe, stay tuned for an extended report in the next issue of European CEO.