Mexico slaps new tax on high calorie food and soft drink

Foods with at least 275 kilocalories per 100 grams, such as fried foods, confectionery, and ice cream will soon be subject to an 8 per cent tax in the world's most obese nation.

The junk food tax will start on 1 January in Mexico, which recently overtook United States in first place in a list of most-obese countries, according to a UN food and agriculture report this year.

A tax of one peso (about 8c) will also apply on every litre of soft drink.

Soft drink consumption has been blamed for the obesity growth in Mexico. According to the World Health Organisation, Mexico is the largest consumer of soft drinks in the world with the average Mexican drinking 163 litres per year.

Denmark was the first to introduce a so-called fat tax in October 2011, but scrapped it a little over a year later because it increased prices for consumers, increased companies' administrative costs and put Danish jobs at risk, according to the Danish tax ministry.