Jamie Oliver says he is “in shock” over Theresa May’s stripped-down Childhood Obesity Strategy, calling the plans “disappointing” and “frankly, underwhelming”.
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He said he couldn’t understand why what should have been “one of the most important health initiatives of our time” has been published on Thursday during the recess period, when parliament is not sitting. But it believes the strategy “risks being undermined as numerous key planks which an effective and comprehensive strategy would contain are absent”. This Government wants to keep that inspiration alive for the adults of tomorrow – so today we published a plan to tackle unacceptably high levels of obesity in the younger generation.
– School Food Standards will be updated to take into account the latest dietary recommendations.
“Where are the actions on the irresponsible advertising targeted at our children, and the restrictions on junk food promotions?”
“We will continue to lobby the government for more decisive action and apply pressure on the food and drink industry until a telling change is made”. “If the Government is looking to tackle obesity then promotion of these schemes, rather than additional costs, would be helpful”.
“We call on the government to recognise that the publication of its new strategy is very much a starting point and the dialogue with experts in the field of weight management and behaviour change must be a priority. As it stands, our children will witness a rising tide of ill-health from obesity well into the future”.
The government’s plan, which includes a voluntary target to reduce sugar in children’s food and drink by 20 per cent, prompted criticism from the British Medical Association, the BBC reported.
The Government’s childhood obesity strategy was originally expected to launch last December, but has been delayed until this year.
Councillor Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, said it was “disappointing” that a number of measures that it had called for – such as giving councils the power to ban junk food adverts near schools – had not been included. “The Department of Health estimates that NHS England spent £5.1 billion on overweight and obesity-related illness in 2014/15 and, in the face of this, the Government’s response is little more than a lick and a promise”.
Crucially, the money raised from products that have not been re-formulated will be channeled straight into additional funding for more school sport – hundreds of millions of pounds.
The soft drinks industry has two years to lower the sugar in their products in order not to be taxed before the levy is legislated in the 2017 finance bill.
A spokesperson for BRC said: “It is a levy not a tax which means it is applied to the manufacturer, not a mandatory amount on the drink as a tax would be; that means we don’t know how manufacturers will be affected, for example they could absorb the whole of the levy and not pass any of it onto the customer”.
And Advertising Association boss Tim Lefroy agrees, saying that the industry is already self regulating to end junk food ads aimed at children.
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However, a Treasury spokesman argued, “The levy is about getting producers to use healthier ingredients to reduce the levels of added sugar in products our children consume”. Look at somewhere like St Ninian’s school in Stirling, which has pioneered the Daily Mile – where all children run or walk a mile every day during school hours, and seen far healthier classes as result. There’s also a campaign planned for early 2017 to raise awareness of voluntary healthy food guidelines for children in pre-school.
