Forget a half-baked sugar tax, The Opportunities Party plans to tax all unhealthy foods to help New Zealanders save money while making good choices about what they put into their bodies.

A Traffic light approach to food classification is a central part of TOP’s health policy released this morning.

Health experts will scientifically assess and grade all food products into three categories, red light, orange light and green light.

Red light foods that are assessed as unhealthy will attract a surtax of up to 20%, with the tax simply tacked on to current GST collection.

Orange light foods which have been assessed as neutral will attract no surtax.

Green light foods are those that are defined as healthy including fresh produce and non-processed foods.  They will attract a credit at time of purchase which will be allocated to the individual consumer.  Those green light credits can then be used to get discounts on further healthy food purchases.

“Successive governments have failed to take any real action on health eating”, says Party Founder and Leader Dr Gareth Morgan,” While it will take time and effort to establish the traffic light tax on junk food, the benefits to individuals and the country as whole through reduced health spending will be enormous”.

We’re not telling New Zealander what to eat or banning any products, but we are helping people make better choices for themselves and their children.