2024/07/15 WHO Launches New Guidelines to Promote Healthy Diets through Fiscal Policies

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new guideline aimed at promoting healthy dietary choices through the implementation of fiscal policies. These measures focus on discouraging the consumption of unhealthy foods while encouraging healthier food options through targeted subsidies and economic support.
 
The guideline addresses the challenges posed by the current food environment, where highly processed foods, rich in unhealthy fats, sugars, and sodium, are widely accessible, affordable, and heavily marketed. This environment makes it difficult for consumers to make nutritious choices, contributing to a global rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and various cancers. Unhealthy diets have become a leading public health threat worldwide.
 
Based on growing evidence, the guideline recommends taxes on unhealthy foods, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which have been shown to reduce demand and consumption. Conversely, subsidies for healthier foods, like fruits and vegetables, can improve their affordability and accessibility, leading to increased consumption and positive shifts in consumer behavior. The WHO sees fiscal policies as a powerful tool to nudge consumers towards healthier choices, making nutritious options easier to select.
 
"Fiscal policies, including taxes and subsidies, have the potential to shape consumer and market behavior by influencing product prices and affordability. Subsidies can increase the consumption of healthy products, while taxes can reduce the demand for harmful foods and encourage industry reformulation," said Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director of the Department of Health Promotion at WHO.
 
Governments play a critical role in combating diet-related NCDs, tackling all forms of malnutrition, and fostering healthy food environments. Many countries are already taking action. As of February 2024, 115 WHO Member States have implemented national taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages. An additional 41 Member States have introduced taxation on a range of other unhealthy food categories. However, fewer nations have employed subsidies to promote the consumption of healthier foods or removed taxes on these products.
 
The guideline provides evidence-based recommendations for implementing fiscal measures that support healthier diets. It is part of a broader, integrated approach to improving population health and addressing the growing burden of NCDs. By guiding governments to adopt fiscal policies that discourage unhealthy food consumption and promote access to nutritious foods, the WHO aims to create food environments where making the healthier choice becomes the easier choice.
 
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240091016