While the strategy has introduced targets for reducing the amount of sugar in food and drink products by 20% by 2020, these are exclusively voluntary measures, which the campaigners have attacked for following what they considered to be the failed Public Health Responsibility Deal (PHRD) initiative between government and industry.
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Food manufacturers will instead be challenged to reduce the level of sugar in products such as cereals, yoghurts, candies and deserts by a fifth by 2020.
The soft drinks industry has said it is “disappointed” after the Government pressed ahead with plans to introduce a sugar tax, with the funds raised used to support school sport and fitness programmes.
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.
“It is vital that Theresa May and her government release a robust childhood obesity strategy”.
And celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who has been at the forefront of lobbying for a sugar tax, took to Facebook to say he was “in shock”.
The Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan is based on outdated evidence, shows the Government values corporate profit over public good, and is unlikely to solve the New Zealand obesity crisis, according to a new critique.
Clarke said the money promised to schools came from the March budget and was “nothing new” but he added: “If the industry doesn’t immediately drop its Can the Tax campaign it will be obvious to everyone that it is the FDF that is getting in the way of £130m going to primary schools and it will be on their heads”.
“Rates of childhood obesity in Scotland are rising and this is a public health crisis we can’t ignore”.
However, the strategy does outline the government’s intention to introduce a soft drinks tax.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe welcomed the strategy but acknowledged that further measures were necessary.
She added: ‘We’ve looked at a whole range of policies over the past year, this is the plan that we’re putting forward, it’s a cross-Government plan’.
The Obesity Health Alliance – a coalition of 33 charities, medical royal colleges and campaign groups – said the plan fell “disappointingly short of what is needed”, with some anticipated measures “significantly watered down or removed entirely”.
But health experts and campaigners have expressed their disappointment at the plan.
The plan also calls on primary schools to deliver at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day and to help parents and carers ensure children get the same amount at home.
In its advice to the Department of Health, the body also said curbs on price promotions on high-sugar products could reduce consumption by 6% – but ministers have overlooked the suggestions.
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”.
And a new voluntary “healthy schools rating scheme” will be taken into account during school inspections.
Professor Graham MacGregor, Chairman of Action on Sugar and Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) said the strategy, if confirmed, “is an insulting response to the United Kingdom crisis in obesity type 2 diabetes both in children and adults”.
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.
The Food and Drink Federation said the soft drinks industry was already making progress to reduce the quantity of sugar in their products.
“Obesity kills as surely as smoking; Government took on the tobacco industry effectively, although it was a tough challenge, and can do it again now”.
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He said the target to reduce sugar was “flawed” because it focused on “the role of this single nutrient, when obesity is caused by excess calories from any nutrient”.
