In an effort to fight obesity, Austrailia is imposing a fat tax on junk food.  The fat tax will apply to all products containing more than 2.3% of fatty acids in meat, cheeses, creams and processed products.

After many countries have tried to pass the fat tax, Australia is the first in the world to execute the bill. France and Denmark are in the works to enforce the junk food tariff as well. Denmark has been getting a lot of heat for ditching their fat tax after just one year of implementing it. Australia is trying to persue Denmark into reinstating the tax.

France's fat tax concentrated on sugary soda drinks like Coca-Cola, with the fat tax designed to raise around $150 million by adding a few cents to every sugary can.

Most recently, Denmark's fat tax failed just last year. The causes for it "going belly up" included increased pricing leading people to leave the country to purchase certain food items, hurting the country's economy. The Danish government said that the tax had increased prices of dairy, meat and processed foods, which had resulted in consumers visiting Germany and Sweden to purchase food.

A report by Danish National Health and Medicines Authority said the tax was first implemented in October 2011, to combat the high rates of overweight or obese Danish citizens. The Authority said that 47 per cent were overweight and 13 per cent were obese.

The Australia fat tax will require producers to claim statements not only on the amount of saturated fat in the product, but also how much is used in its preparation.

60 percent of Australian adults, and 25 percent of children, were overweight or obese in 2011.

In an effort to convince Denmark to re-pass their fat tax, the senior adviser of pressure Obesity Policy Coalition in Australia said:

"We think unhealthy foods should be taxed and the funds raised used to subsidize healthy food for people on a low income.  We know price plays a role in our decisions, and taxes are used in alcohol and tobacco sales to change people's behaviors  It would be interesting to see the impact the fat tax would have in Denmark."

Many are lashing out against the Australia fat tax. Some say they don't believe that this will have a positive impact on health, while others think it is simply an additional unnecessary fee.

The Economics Student Society of Australia (ESSA) recently published their assessment of the fat tax. ESSA points to the difficulty in defining what is fat, appropriately taxing fatty foods to correct market pressures, and implementing the fat tax without a high administrative cost.