Fiona Smith, Professional Lead for Children and Young People’s Nursing for the RCN, said: “Whilst its right that the Government is focussing on the nation’s health and the effect that habits formed in childhood can have, this plan is more notable for what it does not contain than for what it does”.
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The plans are also widely expected to include more details about plans for a levy on sugary drinks in England, following on from an initiative announced earlier this year.
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.
Under the so-called childhood-obesity plan, food and drink companies will work with the government to reduce sugar levels by a fifth in those foods most eaten by children, according to a consultation document published by the Treasury in London on Thursday.
“With this disappointing and, frankly, underwhelming strategy, the health of our future generations remains at stake”.
Plans to restrict junk food advertising and promotional deals on unhealthy foods for kids have been axed from the strategy, after May overruled the health secretary and said the economy must take priority, The Times reported.
Yet other measures recommended by the Commons Health Select committee past year – such as banning junk food advertising during popular family TV shows and an outright ban on supermarkets placing candies and junk food at checkouts or the ends of aisles – do not appear.
Jenny Rosborough, Action on Sugar, has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to step in and salvage the strategy.
“It’s such a shame we can’t lead the way in tackling obesity and type two diabetes as well, which we had the ideal opportunity to do with the release of this strategy”.
“Unless we take action now, we risk condemning our children to the same habits and poor diets that have led to current obesity levels of 30%, and on this current trajectory, projections that 40% of the population in Scotland will be obese by 2030”.
Professor Neena Modi, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, added that the strategy provides “no bold action and instead relies on physical activity, personal responsibility and voluntary product reformulation”. We need the game-changing strategy it promised a year ago.
If the industry fails to implement the changes voluntarily, the Government will consider “whether alternative levers need to be used”.
On the sugar tax, NFRN chief executive Paul Baxter said: “Piling on more ill-thought-out policies that will only make things more hard for retailers while doing nothing to address the serious problem of obesity does not make sense.
This feeble obesity plan looks like it is actually working in the interest of the food, soft drinks and advertising industries”.
But there is no attempt to rein back advertising aimed at kids and many of its ideas, such as a scheme for the food industry to reduce sugar in children’s foods, are voluntary.
By imposing the new levy on sugar drinks, Britain follows the example of France, Belgium, Hungary, Mexico and Scandinavian countries that have been levying similar taxes for years.
The department of health has pledged to work towards a 20 per cent reduction of sugar in foods and drinks that are popular with children, and to get primary school children active for at least an hour a day.
“Soft drink companies are already making great progress to reduce sugars from their products, having achieved a 16% reduction between 2012 and 2016”.
The charity believes these losses have left the sugar agenda short of some influential support and it is now in danger of losing some of the momentum it has gained recently through the introduction of the proposed sugar tax.
Ian Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, criticised the government’s plan for focussing too heavily on cutting sugar, calling it “a disappointing diversion from effective measures to tackle obesity”, the BBC reported. It was estimated that the NHS in England spent £5.1bn on overweight and obesity-related ill-health in 2014/15.
A new voluntary healthy ratings scheme will be launched, also in September next year, to “recognise and encourage” primary schools’ contribution to preventing obesity.
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Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said: “This Government is absolutely committed to reducing childhood obesity and one of the best ways to do this is to boost sports in schools”.
