Tax on Sugary and Salty Packaged Meals within the Philippines Might Save Lives and Lower Healthcare Prices | Johns Hopkins

A brand new research led by researchers on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds {that a} attainable tax on processed packaged meals excessive in sugar and sodium within the Philippines may forestall almost 3,000 untimely deaths and avert 5,000 strokes, 14,000 coronary heart assaults, and 22,000 new kind 2 diabetes instances over 20 years.

The Philippines carried out a tax on sweetened drinks in 2018 and is contemplating including this tax to unhealthy packaged meals. A 20% tax on sugary and salty packaged meals may additionally cut back healthcare spending by over $46 million USD over 20 years whereas producing $13 billion USD in income.

The findings had been printed on-line on August 25 in Lancet Public Health. They had been additionally offered on the International Congress of Nutrition of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences in Paris.

The researchers imagine that is the primary research to estimate the well being and financial impacts of a broad tax on unhealthy processed and packaged meals in a low- or middle-income nation. 

“Many of these countries are experiencing a nutritional transition, marked by rising consumption of ultra-processed foods linked to obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer,” says Matti Marklund, PhD, MSE, assistant professor within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of International Health and one of many paper’s authors. “Our findings may have implications for billions of people around the world who are increasingly exposed to unhealthy diets and at higher risk of chronic disease.”

For their evaluation, the researchers developed a mathematical mannequin to estimate the dietary, well being, and financial impression of a tax on the Philippines’ unhealthy packaged meals. They outlined unhealthy meals as packaged meals with ranges of sugar and salt that exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) suggestions. Examples of unhealthy meals included sweet, cookies, salty snacks, and processed meats.  

The authors say these findings help the taxation of unhealthy meals, past sugar-sweetened drinks, as an efficient technique to enhance public well being and cut back the burden of diet-related illnesses.

The evaluation additionally discovered that, not like in higher-income nations such because the U.S., wealthier Filipinos consumed probably the most processed and packaged meals. As the least delicate to cost modifications, they’d pay probably the most in tax however see the fewest well being advantages. Lower-income Filipinos, whereas consuming much less of those meals, are extra price-sensitive and would achieve better well being advantages whereas paying the least. Middle-income teams would minimize sugar and salt consumption probably the most, resulting in the biggest well being enhancements general.

“This suggests that well-designed, nutrient-based taxes can promote health equity, especially when combined with subsidies for healthier foods, which could be funded through the tax revenue generated,” says Marklund.

Hungary and Colombia are among the many few nations which have carried out this sort of meals tax. The tax in Colombia—a 20% tax on packaged meals excessive in sugar, sodium, or saturated fat—went into full impact in January 2025 and was anticipated to generate round $270 million USD per yr. Tax revenues have exceeded expectations by greater than double, in response to Colombia’s National Directorate of Taxes and Customs.

The analysis was supported by funding from Resolve to Save Lives and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.