Labour Pledges Tougher Measures on Fats, Salt and Sugar in UK Election Manifesto

16 Jan 2015 --- Labour has pledged to ban high fat foods for children if it wins the next election in the UK. The political group will also impose maximum amounts of fat, sugar and salt in cereals and crisps, according to reports. The levels of fat, salt and sugar in food has been reduced in recent years, but many people still consume more than the recommended levels. Reports state than in the UK 15% of those under 15 are still obese.

The proposals, which are set to be unveiled by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, include part of Labour’s plan to “promote physical activity” and give every child “a healthier start in life”.

The party will also target high-strength alcohol and it also said it would bring in plain cigarette packaging as part of its full health pledge. The manifesto will target high-strength and low-cost alcohol, such as white cider, to include minimum prices and a ban on larger bottles.

Labour has also said its goal is that children born in 2015 will become the first ‘smoke-free generation’.

“Labour has traditionally led the way on public health and this new approach will chart a new course towards a healthy nation in the 21st Century,” Burnham’s speech on this subject will say. “As part of this children will need better protection from the pressures of modern living and the harm caused by alcohol, sugar and smoke and Labour will not flinch from taking the action needed to provide it.”

Labour is also set to look at making improvements to food labelling to help people better understand what they are eating, including working at EU level to introduce the traffic light labelling of packaged food.

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, said: “This new strategy to improve public health acknowledges the weaknesses of purely voluntary initiatives, and recognises that regulation is needed to tackle some of the food industry's worst offenders and marketing practices. Our campaign has been asking successive governments to implement strong regulation in this area for many years and so we welcome this move.”

“However, handing over the detail of their policies to the food industry and to advertising executives who write and oversee the implementation of marketing rules – as this strategy seems to be proposing – is a well-tried recipe for failure. It risks neutering the regulatory 'sticks' that are so desperately needed to bring in wholesale product reformulation and a rebalancing of marketing towards promoting healthy choices.”

“Restricting products high in fat, salt or sugar from being advertised before the 9pm watershed would be a simple, effective and popular move; at one stroke removing this advertising from all the shows on commercial TV most watched by children. So it is disappointing that Labour have not chosen to push immediately for this measure.”

“The strategy’s idea of maximum limits of fat, salt and sugar in foods marketed 'substantially' to children opens up an important debate on the definitions of marketing to children and of the age of a child. Setting those definitions will be a key test for the robustness of the policy.”

“The Children's Food Campaign has long been calling for the loopholes to be closed which currently allow junk food and sugary snacks and drinks to be marketed to children. We want Government to crack down on the use of child-friendly brand characters, advergames and misleading health and nutrition claims used to promote less healthy products and especially to target children. We also want to see the advertising rules extended to cover in-store placement and promotion of products, as well as universally strengthened to provide the same level of protection as the (hopefully improved) broadcast regulations would.”

“We also want to see Government adopt a 20 pence per litre sugary drinks duty. There is a growing public movement in favour of this policy, as well as academic modelling showing the predicted savings to the NHS and the change in consumer behaviour, and positive experience of other countries with similar taxes. In addition, the substantial potential income from such a duty could be used to pay for children's health initiatives.”

In a statement, the Institute of Food Research (IFR) stated: “Whilst there is no doubt that reducing excessive levels of salt, fat and sugar in the diet will have benefits on the nation’s overall health, how we achieve this needs to be based on the best available scientific evidence. We believe that this is best achieved through a balanced diet and taking sufficient exercise. Government can play a role in empowering people to make better decisions to achieve this, through education, work in schools, as well as on pack labelling.”

“Reformulation of products could also help, but this needs to be done with a rational, evidence-based approach. The food industry has already been actively reformulating products to improve their health. Trans-fats have been vastly reduced in processed foods, in response to overwhelming evidence of their harmful health effects. Our own studies have shown how levels have indeed dropped in the latest food composition data.”

“But further reformulation may be harder to achieve. Sugar, fat and salt all play a variety of different roles in our foods. Whilst it may be possible to target a minority of foods where there are clear opportunities to cut out excess, such as sugar sweetened drinks, sugars may be intrinsic to some foods. Fats are used to give food its structure. Salt plays an important role in preventing food poisoning bacteria from growing. Targeting one food ingredient may be over simplistic, as highlighted by the problem posed by low fat foods where the fat has been replaced by sugar.”

“The food industry has put in a lot of effort to reformulate foods to make them healthier, but working with these constraints. More can still be done and scientific research, including our own can provide innovative solutions. We at how to develop fats that contain reduced calories, but otherwise match their structural and sensory properties. We are looking at ingredients that can make you feel fuller, for longer. Our food safety centre, and resources such as ComBase, can help minimise microbial safety risks from reducing salt and sugar.”

“Providing healthier foods doesn’t necessarily lead to healthier diets. Consumer choice over portion size, and how often we eat could undermine the best efforts through reformulation. There is a risk that unworkable limits would provide healthier foods that consumers simply reject because their quality is not maintainable, or their shelf life means they go to waste too soon. So we need to maintain projects like the National Diet Survey, to monitor those changes in foods have the desired effect in improving the overall diet.”

“Obesity, and related health conditions, is complex, and consumer behaviour is more complex still. So it will need a government, food producers, scientists, retailers educators and consumers themselves to take responsibility together and tackle the problem.”