France raises tax on palm oil?

According to the National Food Safety Authority (ASNES), the saturated fatty acids in this oil are over-consumed by French society. This phenomenon is as worrying as it contributes to obesity developmentand also favors the occurrence cardiovascular diseases.   The tax is a wake-up call, “not to consumers but to food producers, to replace the dangerous component of the oil with healthier alternatives,” stressed author of the amendment, Yves Daudigny (Socialist Party). The amendment to the draft budget act (PFLSS) 2013 provides for the imposition of an additional tax of EUR 300 per ton of palm oil, coconut oil and palm oil for human consumption.  

Yves Daudigny emphasizes that due to the fact that these oils are rich in saturated fatty acids, they are used especially in the production of margarine or frying fat. In addition, palm fats, those obtained from copra, or those derived from cruciferous palm, “Are abused by restaurants or the food industry”, the politician continued, adding that they were “added to confectionery and salt and sweet foods intended for children”. At present, the tax on these products is EUR 98,74 per tonne of palm oil and EUR 107,80 per tonne of coconut oil and cabbage palm oil. Together with 126.000 tons of palm oil consumption in France annually (which is 2 kg per capita per year), the profitability of the additional tax will be 40 million euros, Daudigny estimates. This increase, he believes, will reduce the use of palm oil in food products. source: ScienceNews.pl