A damning report on the state of the NHS by former health tsar Lord Darzi has called for “bold action” to regulate the food industry.
The report by the leading cancer surgeon and ex health minister today contrasts the lack of action taken by govenments to tackle obesity to the succession of interventions that have successfully slashed smoking rates.
Campaign groups and National Food Strategy author Henry Dimbleby told The Grocer Darzi’s warning was a clear signal to the government it needed to introduce further regulation on HFSS foods, in addition to the soft drinks levy.
Darzi’s report highlights figures showing children from the most deprived backgrounds are twice as likely to be obese by age five, with one in three children obese by 11 in the poorest communities.
It also calls for a new strategy on health promotion, including new regulation of the industry smilar to that taken against tobacco firms.
“It is apparent that where bold action has been taken, health has improved,” says the report. This is notably the case for smoking where a succession of interventions have driven smoking rates down with consequential positive impacts on cardiovascular disease and cancer incidence and survival.
“In contrast, bold action has been sorely lacking on obesity and regulation of the food industry.
“This means that childhood obesity rates for 10 to 11-year-olds have risen and inactivity rates in adults have remained constant. As we have seen, the prevalence of diabetes has increased from 5.1% prevalence in 2008 to 7.5% in 2022 as a result of this inaction.
“Similarly, when tough action was taken on the harm caused by alcohol, deaths attributed to it stabilised.”
Dimbleby, whose National Food Strategy recommended a raft of taxes on food companies, told The Grocer: “I think Lord Darzi’s report shows the extent of the obesity crisis.
“It shows that you can’t just continue to throw sick people at the NHS.
“It’s pretty clear that part of the answer has to be to have more regulation of the food industry.”
Katherine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), said: “Today’s report shows we now need to see further action to regulate the industry.
“We have had laws in place that could have immediately helped our children to grow up healthily but the previous government needlessly delayed them, coming into force until the end of 2025, leaving more and more children to suffer the consequences of inaction.
“This new report shows how we need the government to urgently step in and regulate companies that harm the health of our children.”
Today the government is due to publish a consultation on its plans for a ban on junk food advertising before a 9pm watershed on TV and a total online ban, due to come in in October next year after being delayed by the previous government.
The OHA, in collaboration with 88 leading health charities, campaign groups and medical royal colleges, has called for other measures to include a sweeping clampdown on out-of-home operators selling junk food to children.
An open letter to prime minister Keir Starmer today calls for full delivery of proposed planning system reforms, which would empower local authorities to take action to ban junk food establishments near schools and also outlaw all HFSS outdoor advertising to allow only healthier food and drink options.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has promised Labour will take action to block planning applications for HFSS establishments, having accused companies such as KFC of ”taking the mick and dragging councils through the courts so they can pump fried chicken out by school gates”.
Meanwhile, the BRC has also called on the new government to focus its public health policy on food served in relatively unregulated takeaways, claiming calorie-laden food in the out-of-home sector should be the target for action, rather than supermarkets, which have spent millions on reformulation.
In June, a report by nudge body Nesta found one in three fast food meals contained more than double the calories recommended for a meal.
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