The UK government has unveiled a new policy to promote the sale of healthy foods and drinks in conjunction with industry manufacturers and supermarkets.
As part of a forthcoming ten-year Health Plan, the project is aimed at cutting obesity rates and to ease pressures on the National Health Service (NHS).
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According to a weekend statement from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the policy “will set full transparency and accountability around the food that businesses are selling and encourage healthier products”, and in so doing create a level playing field for all those involved.
The government will then set targets to increase the “healthiness” of foods and drinks sold in coordination with the Food Strategy Advisory Board, a panel of government and industry representatives.
The DHSC said the new standard will “make the average shopping basket of goods sold slightly healthier”, with those involved given flexibility in their approach, “whether that’s reformulating products and tweaking recipes, changing shop layouts, offering discounts on healthy foods, or changing loyalty schemes to promote healthier options”.
Citing unnamed public health experts, the DHSC suggested obesity rates in the UK could be halved if overweight individuals cut their daily calorie intake by 216 calories.
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By GlobalDataAnnouncing the new standards and policy, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This government’s ambition for kids today is for them to be part of the healthiest generation of children ever.
“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. Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice because prevention is better than cure.”
Action on Salt said the new policy needs to be accompanied by financial penalties for non-compliance but also applauded the mandatory, rather than voluntary, efforts.
Sonia Pombo, the head of impact and research at the UK advocacy group, said: “We welcome the government’s recognition that supermarkets have a powerful role to play in shaping healthier food environments,” adding that “voluntary efforts have repeatedly fallen short” as she called for a “bold” and “enforceable policy”.
Pombo continued: “The government must introduce mandatory, evidence-based targets for salt and sugar reduction, backed by meaningful financial penalties for non-compliance. This will help shift the responsibility away from individuals and toward a food system that truly supports healthier choices.”
Also welcoming the government’s move, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said the UK’s largest supermarket chain had pressed for the mandatory reporting of healthy food and drinks sales for grocers and food businesses.
“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,” Murphy said.
His counterpart at Sainsbury’s, Simon Roberts, added: “Today’s announcement from government is an important and positive step forward in helping the nation to eat well. We need a level playing field across the entirety of our food sector for these actions to have a real and lasting impact.”
Katharine Jenner, a director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said that creating a level playing field around healthy food choices would help protect supermarkets’ profits, eliminating what she called a “first mover disadvantage”.
Jenner added: “This is a fair and evidence-based prescription for better health; big businesses urgently need the government to level the playing field to help them focus on selling products that help people live well.
“The government has rightly identified the root cause of obesity-related ill health: a food system that makes healthy eating difficult. Crucially, it puts the spotlight on the food industry and commits to holding it accountable for providing healthier options – rather than placing the burden on individuals who are already struggling to get by.”
Nomad Foods, the frozen foods business and owner of the Goodfella’s and Aunt Bessie’s brands, said the company had been voluntarily reporting the proportion of its healthy food product sales since 2017.
A spokesperson said in a statement: “We welcome today’s move by the UK government requiring all food businesses to report on the sales of healthier products. We believe that industry-wide reporting would increase healthy innovation and reformulation, driving the sale and consumption of tasty, nutritious food, unlocking a healthier UK food system.”
