In a novel move to fight the unhealthy eating habits of the people, Denmark has imposed a “saturated fat tax” – the first-of-its-kind tax to be imposed by any country in the world!

The tax on unhealthy foods will essentially place a surcharge on foods like butter, cheese, milk, meat, pizza, oil and processed food items if the saturated fat content in them is over 2.3 percent.

With the help of the new ‘fat tax’, Denmark is clearly aiming at a much-desired reduction in people's consumption of fatty foods. The tax was planned by the outgoing conservative Danish government, with the key objective of raising the average life expectancy of Danes --- a life-expectancy figure which presently is three years below the OECD’s average age of 79 years, over the next decade.

However, despite the commendable goal of the ‘fat tax,’ it apparently involves a very complex mechanism, as has been pointed out by Linnet Juul of Denmark’s Confederation of Industries. According to Juul’s explanation, the tax mechanism essentially involves tax rates on the percentage of fat used in the manufacturing of a product instead of the percentage that is in the end-product.

While Juul is pressuring lawmakers to simplify the tax, some scientists are recommending that targeting the salt or sugar intake of the people would seemingly be a better idea as compared to the ‘fat tax’!