Experts Push Europe to Tax Alcohol, Junk Food Over Liver Deaths

Europe faces a stark choice: raise the price of alcohol and junk food, or keep paying for a liver disease crisis that already kills 284,000 people a year.

A new report urges governments across the continent to take far tougher action against what it describes as an escalating and unsustainable burden from liver-related illness. The central demand is blunt: sharply increase taxes on alcohol and unhealthy food, not just to discourage consumption but to recover some of the costs these products impose on public systems. Reports indicate the authors want tax levels high enough to reflect the strain on health services, social services and the criminal justice system.

Experts argue that Europe cannot treat liver disease as a niche health issue when its human and financial costs now stretch across hospitals, households and public budgets.

The proposal lands in a political arena where food prices, public health and personal choice often collide. Supporters of higher taxes say price remains one of the few tools governments can deploy quickly and at scale. They argue that liver disease does not emerge in isolation; it grows out of patterns of harmful drinking, poor diet and delayed intervention, all of which drive up preventable illness and deepen pressure on already stretched public services.

The debate now turns on whether European governments will frame these taxes as a public health intervention, a revenue measure, or both. Either way, the stakes reach well beyond one policy fight. If leaders act, they could reshape how Europe confronts preventable disease and the commercial drivers behind it. If they stall, the death toll and the public bill will likely keep climbing.