Childhood Obesity Plan Needs Equal Participation From Food Companies

30 Sep 2016 --- The Government's Childhood Obesity Plan will only have the desired impact if it ensures the full and equal participation of all companies across every part of the food industry, the British Food Corporation (BRC) has said.

The BRC have stated that retailers are concerned that the Childhood Obesity Plan as it stands, relies too heavily on voluntary agreements from the food industry, which have in the past resulted in significantly different levels of effort from the various parts of the industry.

They claim that the Government must, therefore play an active leadership role in delivering the Plan, commit sufficient resources and demonstrate that the proposed voluntary approach will create a level playing field across the industry.

Andrew Opie, BRC Director of Food and Sustainability said: "As an industry, we are proud of the leading role that we have played in reformulating our products, promoting healthier alternatives and adopting easy to use on-pack nutritional labeling.”

“In recent years, progressive retailers have found themselves at a competitive disadvantage against those companies which have been slower to reformulate, which is why we had previously called for sugar targets to be mandatory rather than voluntary.”

“The Government must now show real leadership in getting every single food company to commit fully and play its part".