England’s top doctor is calling for a tax on junk foods that are high in salt and sugar, claiming the funds could be channelled into bringing down the cost of more healthy eating options.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England and the former head of scientific advisory at the Department of Health, accused the UK food industry of “failing the public” for not delivering on voluntary targets laid down by Public Health England to reduce the content of unhealthy ingredients.
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High contents of sugars, salts and fats have been blamed on a host of health conditions, ranging from growing rates of obesity to heart disease and diabetes, not just in the UK but abroad too.
The BBC said the professor had hinted at putting a tax on junk food and chocolate, with the proceeds to go to subsidising fruit and vegetables. She has also urged the UK government to ban added sugar in jars of baby food.
“Those sectors that damage health must pay for their harm or subsidise healthier choices,” according to the professor’s report cited by the BBC, which also made links to the success of the tax imposed on sugary drinks earlier this year and which Davies should be extended to sweetened milk drinks.
The charity Sustain – the UK alliance promoting the health and welfare of people and animals – welcomed Davies’ call to adopt the drinks tax more broadly.
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By GlobalData“As the alliance that led the campaign for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, we’re pleased to see the chief medical officer coming out in support of the future inclusion of sugary milk drinks in this Levy,” the charity said in a statement
“It is really interesting to see the CMO’s support to look more widely at food prices, and how these can be used to encourage more fruit and veg consumption and rebalance with the price of less-healthy produce. Good food should be more affordable, accessible and attractive. Only then will we see a shift in consumption away from unhealthy and unsustainable food and drink products which leave taxpayers to pick up the costs of an overstretched NHS and environmental damage.”
Davies also urged the government to address what are generally deemed to be inequalities within the UK community system, saying poorer families were more vulnerable to childhood obesity and health-related diseases than their more affluent counterparts.
She emphasised how it was her job to highlight the rights of some children who could not make their own choices when it comes to food, shrugging off claims that she would become known as the “chief nanny of a nanny state”.
Davies’ report also says the UK should introduce a health index to monitor progress in efforts to make life healthier for people.
“We should not be adding empty calories to baby food,” she said. “It sets the taste for sweeter food and results in children gaining unnecessary weight before going to primary school.”
Meanwhile, the BBC cited a spokesperson for the UK Treasury as saying the government would not shy away from further action, including tax changes, if the food industry “fails to face up to the scale of the problem through voluntary reduction programmes”.
