TABLE 3.

Real-world evaluation of impact of salt taxes¹

Reference	Author and year	Country	Evaluation period	Method of evaluation	Summary of results
(39)	World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, 2015	Hungary	2011 to 2014	Data on consumption of products with public health tax were obtained through a questionnaire and a 3-d nutrition diary Data on tax revenue were obtained from the National Tax and Customs Administration	Proportion of adults consuming taxed salty snacks rose, from 69% to 71%; and in 2014 78% still bought salty condiments (no comparative data) Of those consuming salty snacks or condiments, 16% and 11%, respectively, changed behavior by either reducing consumption or switching to cheaper brands Under 5% substituted other foods, but the majority of these chose healthier foods Salty snacks and condiments contributed 30% of tax revenue gained
(40)	Pacific Research Centre for the Prevention of Obesity and NCDs, 2017	Fiji	2011 to 2013	Data on import volume (used as proxy for consumer consumption) were obtained from the Fiji Bureau of Statistics	Volume of MSG imports increased, rising from <50,000 kg in 2011 to >200,000 kg in 2013
(41)	Taillie et al., 2017	Mexico	2012 to 2015	Data on household food purchases were obtained from the Nielsen Company's Mexico Consumer Panel Services	Taxed food purchases declined by 6.0% within 2 y of tax introduction, accelerating in year 2 Low socioeconomic households were more likely to decrease their purchases of taxed foods, suggesting pro-equity effects, as were households that had shown greater preference for taxed foods pretax No disaggregated data on consumption of salty snacks or reduction of salt intake
(42)	The World Bank, 2019	Tonga	2014–15 to 2017–18	Data on import volumes and revenues were obtained from government administrative data Data on consumption and behaviors were obtained through household surveys (questionnaire) Data on prices of products were obtained through retail surveys	The average retail price of instant noodles increased from T 0.88 per pack in FY2014–15 to T 1.14 per pack in FY2017–18 Sharp decrease in imports of imported noodles from 2,083,000 kg in 2014–15 to 439,000 kg in 2016–17. However, the volume rebounded to 806,000 kg in FY 2017–18, even though the excise tax doubled 70% of those surveyed did not change consumption of instant noodles as a result of the price change, likely due to the low base price As a result of the excise tax on fatty meats, 6–7% stopped eating turkey tails and mutton flaps products altogether, whereas 22% switched to a cheaper alternative to turkey tails and 40% looked for cheaper alternatives to mutton flaps, respectively), the most frequent of which was salted beef

¹FY, fiscal year; MSG, monosodium glutamate; T, Tongan Pa'anga.