Alberto Garzon a newly appointed Minister of consumption in the country of Spain has announced that double Value Added Tax (VAT) will be applicable to all the ‘unhealthy food’ or junk food. The prominent reason for introducing such a norm is to prevent the population of Spain to consume more healthy food so as to decrease obesity amongst the Spanish population.
The program demanded very clear-cut labeling which must include all the ingredients used, and the various Spanish food industry is directed to the food made for the consumption of students in schools and patients in hospital is ought to meet the model of quality and proximity standards. Further, Spain VAT the form of ‘Food Traffic Light’ has posted an alert to the Spanish food industry as the standards are specifically given in the ‘Food Traffic Light’.
The relevance of ‘food traffic light’ is that every food label consists of a ‘traffic light’, which is constituted of five colors that work as an indicator to demonstrate the quality of the food purchased by the consumers.
The mechanism of ‘traffic light’ works with the five colors, from a dark green color with a letter ‘A’; light green with a letter ‘B’; yellow with a letter ‘C’; orange with a letter D to the red color with the letter ‘E’. Further, it is based on the global scores wherein from -15 which denotes the healthiest of the food products to +40 which denotes the least healthy products. And on the basis of this global scoring, the product receives a letter with its respective color code i.e. from dark green (A) to dark red (E).
The score of any product is calculated on the basis of the ingredients used such as sugar content, saturated fatty acids, calories, and salt content, based on these elements the food product is marked negatively. However, food containing elements such as fiber, protein, fruits, vegetables, etc. helps to mark the product positively.
In order to promote a healthy environment, the Spanish government increased the VAT up to 10% and for products such as milk, egg, flour, cheese, bread, fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains only 4% of the VAT is applicable. This kind of restriction is far-sighted and will increase the life expectancy of the population of the nation and will decrease the disease rate of the nation which will ultimately lead to the betterment of the future of the nation.
