A House of Lords inquiry today called for a swathe of new taxes on the food industry, claiming it must be “held to account” for causing the obesity crisis.
The report by the Food, Diet & Obesity Committee accuses the previous government of running scared of the ‘nanny state’ and proposes a draconian list of measures to regulate companies and tax HFSS products.
The committee claims policies of individual responsibility and voluntary regulation, including the now-defunct Responsibility Deal and Public Health England’s sugar reduction strategy have left the food system “broken”.
The committee calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to take personal charge of a new obesity strategy. They should give the Food Standards Agency an independent role to oversee regulation to improve diets and monitor mandatory targets for healthier food, it adds.
Repeating the phrase used by former health tsar Henry Dimbleby in his 2019 National Food Strategy, which was widely ignored by the last government, the committee blames a “junk food cycle” that encourages the food industry to develop and market unhealthy products.
“The food industry should be expected to take action to break this negative cycle,” reads the report.
“Notwithstanding some examples of positive action, the profit incentives in the system have been too strong for any such action to have had a substantive effect. There is now a case for making the food industry bear a fair share of the cost of tackling this crisis through new taxation and regulation. Given this, the food industry must take responsibility for the costs of compliance with future regulation.
“The government must therefore now make a decisive shift away from voluntary measures to a system of mandatory regulation.”
Proposals include announcing “as soon as possible” – and within a maximum of two years – a new salt and sugar reformulation tax regulation to target HFSS products outside the established soft drinks levy, again repeating recommendations by Dimbleby.
The current levy would also face reduced sugar thresholds and greater penalties to “keep pace with inflation”.
The committee, chaired by Baroness Joan Walmsley, calls for funds from the taxes to be pumped into making healthier food cheaper, particularly for those on low incomes. Walmsley in February claimed the previous government had allowed the food industry to “get away with murder”.
The report also calls for a total ban on advertising of HFSS food and drink across all media.
Meanwhile, the committee demands the government updates the nutrient profiling model, used to classify HFSS food under its looming junk food ad ban, to an updated 2018 model, which has never been introduced after fears were expressed by the industry that doing so would rope in tens of thousands more products.
Another major focus in the report are proposed measures to keep food companies away from any negotiations around public health policy. This represents a massive shift to the last government’s policy, with work still due to be published by the Department of Health on a voluntary set of reduction targets.
While Labour has been widely expected to make these targets mandatory, the committee says a new code of conduct should be introduced to stop the “clear conflict of interest” posed by government engaging with the food industry on public health and obesity policy.
As well as HFSS foods facing an onslaught under the proposals, the committee also turns its fire on ultra-processed foods, and says that “notwithstanding” limitations in the evidence to date, there is “growing evidence” of an “alarming” impact on public health.
The inquiry heard evidence from the likes of Dr Chris van Tulleken and Dimbleby, who called for a total ban on advertising for all UPF products.
“The food industry must be held to account now for the rise in unhealthy diets and obesity,” it says. ”The government has already taken some steps to regulate HFSS products, many of which are also UPFs. It must now go much further.
“The government must within two months publish a detailed response to the July 2023 SACN statement on processed foods and health, and any subsequent findings published by SACN. This should set out the government’s current position on UPFs, and in particular: whether and how national dietary guidelines should reflect the need for caution about eating a diet containing a high proportion of UPFs.”
The recommendation comes despite last week leading scientists warning that the evidence surrounding UPF was “overwhelmingly circumstantial” and that “premature” calls for a shift in diets risked a national dietary crisis.
“Over the last 30 years, successive governments have failed to reduce obesity rates, despite hundreds of policy initiatives,” said Walmsley.
“Both the government and the food industry must take responsibility for what has gone wrong and take urgent steps to put it right.
“We urge the government to look favourably on our plan to fix our broken food system and accept that not only is it cost-effective, but that it would lead to a lot less human misery.”
The report has been seized upon by campaign groups calling for regulation and an end to what they said was the failed era of voluntary public health measures.
Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “The government must take forward the insightful and well-considered recommendations made by this cross-party House of Lords report if it is going to address the dire situation facing the NHS, as laid out in the recent Darzi Review.
“This report reveals the lengths to which food and drink companies have gone to avoid regulation, putting profits before public health.
“However, if the proposed recommendations are enacted, unhealthy food companies will no longer be able to hide behind misleading labels, advertise unhealthy foods, or have a seat at the table designing policy.
Dr Kawther Hashem, head of research and impact at Action on Sugar, added: “This new report highlights the crucial need for policies that significantly improve what, where and how we eat and drink.
“A ban on advertising less healthy food across all media by the end of this parliament is especially significant, as evidence shows it can strongly influence children’s eating habits from an early age, promoting unhealthy options.”
FDF chief executive Karen Betts said the industry was keen to work with the government on tackling the obesity crisis and stressed it had a “key role” to play.
“We welcome the fact that this report rightly focuses on how we can achieve dietary change in the UK and help people to eat less fat, salt and sugar and more fruit, vegetables and fibre,” she said..
“Manufacturers have already made significant progress to create healthier options for shoppers, based on government guidelines and the high fat salt and sugar regulations. UK shopping baskets now contain far fewer calories, and less salt and sugar than they did in the past. To continue with this, what industry needs is regulatory certainty.
“We also find encouraging the report’s conclusion that we need better-quality evidence on ‘ultra-processed’ foods and whether processing itself raises particular concerns. If that research brought anything to light, industry would of course act quickly.”
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