Bad ideas die hard in the world of ‘public health’, especially when the government can make money out of them. The shipwreck of Denmark’s notorious ‘fat tax’ should have served as a lighthouse for politicians for a generation.
The negative consequences of the Danish experiment could not have been clearer. After levying a tax on all food products which contained more than 2.3 per cent saturated fat, Danes fled over the borders to Germany and Sweden to stock up on their butter and bacon.
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James Delingpole
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Those who did not shop abroad switched to cheaper supermarkets and bought budget brands of the same products. The tax required an immense bureaucracy to implement and it placed a heavy administrative burden not only on food companies in Denmark but in countries where food was exported to Denmark.
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