LONDON-A long-delayed United Kingdom government plan to encourage less use of sugar in food and drinks to tackle childhood obesity has been criticized by campaigners and parts of the food industry, who described it as weak and flawed.
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Instead, the government has set a voluntary target for food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in products such as cereals, yoghurts, candies and deserts by a fifth by 2020, although it warned that failure to reach the targets may result in mandatory measures.
The plan asks the food and drink industry to cut 5% of the sugar in products popular with children over the next year.
Public Health England will also report on whether the industry is reducing sugar content and will consider “whether alternative levers need to be used”.
Jamie Oliver criticised the plan as “underwhelming” and “far from robust. with so much missing”.
” class=”local_link” > children’s foods and drinks by 20%, and a move to get every primary school child exercising for an hour each day”.
In opting for a sugar tax, Britain joins Belgium, France, Hungary and Mexico, all of which have imposed some form of tax on drinks with added sugar.
Professor Parveen Kumar, BMA board of science chair, said: “Given the United Kingdom has the highest level of obesity in Western Europe with one in three children overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, the government should be doing everything in its power to tackle this problem”.
Most of the measures outlined in the plan (view a summary below) rely on voluntary participation from the food and drink industry, rather than mandatory restrictions. “As it stands, our children will witness a rising tide of ill-health from obesity well into the future”.
Gavin Partington, Director General of the British Soft Drinks Association, said: “We absolutely agree with the Government that obesity levels are too high and action is needed, but burdening businesses and consumers with an ineffective tax is not the answer”.
Schools will also be assessed on their healthiness during school inspections, including an evaluation of how they are making their students more active.
Theresa May has ditched a number of key elements of the proposed anti-obesity strategy, considering them to be “nanny state” policies.
Following the unveiling of the Childhood Obesity Strategy today [18 August 2016] leading oral health charity, the Oral Health Foundation, have described it as an absolute disaster which will lead to another lost generation of children experiencing entirely unnecessary oral health problems.
Cllr Seccombe argued councils will have spent more than half a billion pounds tackling obesity since they took over public health duties three years ago, and recent cuts to the public health budget will “make this task harder”.
Chair of the British Medical Association’s board of science, Professor Parveen Kumar, said Government has failed at a time when poor diet and a bombardment of junk food marketing have become features of children’s lives.
Data shows global obesity rates among men tripled and more than doubled in women between 1975 and 2014.
Nearly a fifth of children are obese by the time they leave primary school.
“The soft drinks industry levy is an important step forward in the fight to halt our obesity crisis and create a Britain fit for the future”.
Last October Public Health England published its advice to the Department of Health, calling for a ban on sugary products at tills and an end to junk food advertising aimed at children. At least 30 minutes of this should be delivered in school.
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Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard, spokesperson for the Royal College of Global Positioning System, also said “it’s disappointing that some of the more radical initiatives expected, such as a ban on pre-watershed junk food advertising, that could potentially help to curb rising levels of childhood obesity, don’t feature in today’s report”, but she also argued that the measures that do “are positive steps forward”.
