Food retailers and manufacturers have been mandated to “make the healthy choice the easy choice” in a partnership between government and industry to tackle the obesity epidemic and ease pressure on the NHS as part of the Plan for Change.
As part of the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan, large retailers including supermarkets will be set a new standard to make the average shopping basket of goods sold slightly healthier.
Businesses will be given the freedom to meet the standard in which ever way works best for them, whether that’s reformulating products and tweaking recipes, changing shop layouts, offering discounts on healthy foods, or changing loyalty schemes to promote healthier options.
The policy will see all big food businesses report on healthy food sales. This will set full transparency and accountability around the food that businesses are selling and encourage healthier products.
The government will then set targets to increase the healthiness of sales in communities across the UK and work with the Food Strategy Advisory Board on the sequencing of this policy.
‘What gets measured gets done’
Henry Dimbleby, author of the National Food Strategy and Independent Review for Government said, “What gets measured gets done. Mandatory reporting is a crucial first step in improving the food environment – it creates a level playing field, rewards the businesses already acting, and gives us a clear picture of what’s really being sold.
“It’s fantastic to see food retailers themselves calling for this. With proper data, we can start to reshape the food system and make healthier choices easier for everyone.”
Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the The Food Foundation, said, “Kudos to those businesses that have already started reporting, and those investors who are part of the Investor Coalition on Food Policy who have been such active proponents of the policy idea. [This] policy announcement will bring standardisation – so we are comparing like with like, and will apply to all companies above a certain size so we have a level playing field and no company is at a disadvantage by reporting.
“This simple act of transparency delivers the opportunity for systemic change – informing better policy design and triggering board room conversations. The data will also clearly reveal to consumers which businesses are on their side and making healthy choices easy, and which are making it actively harder for them to eat well. The government has also said today that once reporting is in place they will move on to set mandatory targets.”
Obesity and public health
Public health experts believe cutting the calorie count of a daily diet by just 50 calories would lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity. If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by just 216 calories a day, equivalent to a single bottle of fizzy drink, obesity would be halved.
Obesity is one of the root causes of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. With the UK now having the third highest rate of adult obesity in Europe, it remains a critical public health challenge, costing the NHS £11.4 billion a year, three times the NHS budget for ambulance services.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said, “Obesity has doubled since the 1990s and costs our NHS £11 billion a year, triple the budget for ambulance services. Unless we curb the rising tide of cost and demand, the NHS risks becoming unsustainable.
“The good news is that it only takes a small change to make a big difference. If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by around 200 calories a day – the equivalent of a bottle of fizzy drink – obesity would be halved.
“This government’s ambition for kids today is for them to be part of the healthiest generation of children ever. That is within our grasp. With the smart steps we’re taking today, we can give every child a healthy start to life.
“Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and are trying to make their stores heathier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field.”
Food starts in the field
Environment Secretary Steve Reed said, “Britain has some of the best farmers, growers, food manufacturers and retailers in the world, which means we have more choice than ever before on our shelves. It is vital for the nation that the food industry delivers healthy food, that is available, affordable and appealing.
“Our food strategy will bring together the health plan, food producers and retailers to make sure we can feed the nation more healthily while growing the economic success of our food sector.”
Major investment firms have already signalled that they would be keen to invest more in healthier products, if they were given due prominence and promotion by food retailers.
Many supermarkets want to do more to make the average shopping basket healthier, but they risk changes hitting their bottom lines if their competitors don’t act at the same time.
Ken Murphy, Tesco Group CEO, said, “All food businesses have a critical part to play in providing good quality, affordable and healthy food. At Tesco, we have measured and published our own healthier food sales for a number of years now – we believe it is key to more evidence-led policy and better-targeted health interventions. That’s why we have called for mandatory reporting for all supermarkets and major food businesses and why we welcome the government’s announcement on this.”