WHO/Europe is holding a webinar to launch a new policy brief, developed with technical support from the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation at Imperial Business School of Imperial College London, offering guidance for countries on how to design and implement food taxes and subsidies to promote healthier diets and reduce the burden of obesity and noncommunicable diseases.
Fiscal policies for healthier diets
Food consumption and production have a profound impact on both human health and the environment. Poor diets are driving rising rates of obesity and noncommunicable diseases in the WHO European Region, while food systems are also contributing to environmental degradation. Fiscal policies – including taxes on foods that do not contribute to a healthy diet and subsidies for healthier options – are powerful tools to help change this trajectory.
Evidence, especially on taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages, shows that well-designed fiscal measures can improve nutrition and health outcomes. WHO’s 2024 policy guidelines strongly recommend taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and provide conditional recommendations for food taxes and subsidies aimed at promoting healthy diets. Increasingly, countries are applying such measures, but challenges remain in aligning food taxation with health and sustainability goals, avoiding unintended trade-offs and ensuring that policies are fair and effective.
A framework for action
WHO’s new policy brief presents key strategies for using fiscal levers to improve diets, including:
- aligning existing taxes on food with health goals without necessarily introducing new taxes or increasing the overall tax burden;
- designing subsidies on healthy foods, potentially through tax reductions, to enhance nutritional benefits;
- using suitable nutrient profile models to ensure that taxes and subsidies target foods based on their overall nutritional quality; and
- ensuring careful policy design, implementation and monitoring to maximize benefits and minimize administrative burdens.
Webinar focus
The webinar will feature:
- key messages from the new policy brief;
- expert reflections on designing and implementing effective fiscal policies; and
- a panel discussion and Q&A providing practical guidance for policy-makers and stakeholders
WHO/Europe will continue to support Member States in adopting evidence-based fiscal measures to promote healthy diets, offering technical assistance and facilitating knowledge exchange.
Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Russian.