Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7649. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2022.7649. Epub 2023 Jan 22.
Taxes on sugary drinks are often used to encourage companies to reformulate their products to reduce the sugar content. This comment discusses how product reformulation can strengthen the market and political power of the food industry, and questions whether these political risks outweigh the public health benefits. It proposes the term 'corporate harm minimisation' to describe the strategic adaptation of a public health harm reduction strategy to align with company or industry goals. It concludes by reflecting on the other ways that corporations influence health beyond the production and marketing of 'unhealthy commodities,' and why public health actors must explore other strategies to challenge powerful corporations.
含糖饮料征税通常被用来鼓励企业对产品进行配方改良以降低糖含量。本文讨论了产品配方改良如何增强食品行业的市场和政治力量，并质疑这些政治风险是否超过了公共卫生益处。文中提出了“企业危害最小化”一词，以描述减少公共卫生危害的策略如何战略性地调整以符合公司或行业的目标。最后，本文反思了企业除了生产和销售“不健康商品”之外，还通过其他方式影响健康的原因，以及公共卫生行为者为何必须探索其他策略来挑战强大的企业。
