Health secretary Wes Streeting has rejected proposals by the House of Lords that the government should exclude food industry bosses from helping to plan the battle against obesity.
Speaking to the BBC today, Streeting said that while the food industry did include a “powerful lobby” that was resistant to regulation, there were an “increasing number” of companies that wanted healthier food and more nutritious diets.
Last week, in a report critical of the food industry’s role in creating a “broken” food system, the food, diet and obesity committee in the Lords, chaired by Baroness Joan Walmsley, called for a raft of taxes and mandatory targets to be placed on companies.
The report also called for companies with a significant proportion of their products classified as HFSS (the exact amount to be decided by ministers) to be excluded from talks on food, diet and obesity prevention. It said there was a need for a “decisive shift away from voluntary measures to a system of mandatory regulation”.
“It’s become very very clear that, like the tobacco industry, the food industry always lobbies in their own interests and that has got to stop,” Walmsley told a Food Foundation webinar on Friday.
The committee has urged the government to produce a new code of conduct by the end of next year formalising how the the industry will be sent to the sidelines in any talks over obesity proposals.
“When it comes to implementation, of course they have to talk to industry to ensure that it works properly and it doesn’t impose too much of a burden in particular for SMEs who may need help,” said Walmsley.
However, speaking to BBC Radio 5 this morning, Streeting rejected the idea of ostracising food bosses from talks.
“I’m often asked how are you going to deal with this big bad food industry with all their salt and all their sugar and all junk food and their marketing and the rest of it,” he said.
“There’s an element of truth in it and there is a big well-funded food lobby that rails against health, but there are an increasing number of leaders in the food and drink industry who want to see healthier nutritious diets, who want more transparency and information and I want to work with those leaders in the food and drink industry to see what we can do together to improve heath and nutrition and so when those arguments come up, I’m all ears.”
Sources have said that if Labour listens to the committee it would throw the workings of the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) into chaos, with its work, on both health and sustainability, built around negotiations with major food businesses.
The Grocer understands that a “a wall of silence” has surrounded Labour’s plans for the future of the FDTP, as the new government decides on its future.
The body, which includes a who’s who of leading supermarkets and suppliers, has already drawn up proposals for companies to report on the portion of healthy foods they sell. However, Labour is widely expected to make the proposals mandatory, as originally suggested in Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy and echoed by the Lords’ report.
Stéfan Descheemaeker, CEO at Nomad Foods, one of the few companies that agreed to talk to the Lords inquiry and which warmly welcomed most of its proposals for a crackdown, said in planning to exclude the industry from talks the Lords had taken a step too far.
“To radically change the food industry, the industry must be part of the conversation,” he said.
Andrea Martinez Inchausti, deputy food director at the BRC, said: “Retailers are committed to tackling obesity and supporting public health.
“The report strongly recommends a legislative approach in many areas, and while we support evidence-based legislation, a heavily legislated environment will restrict innovation.
“The future of public health relies on innovation, which has in the past led to industry initiatives such as the world-leading front-of-pack labelling.” future
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