Childhood obesity: retailers urge mandatory cuts to food sugar levels

Leading retailers have criticised the government’s watered-down childhood obesity strategy, arguing it would be better if ministers imposed mandatory cuts to sugar levels in food rather than leaving it up to voluntary action by manufacturers.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), representing grocers, said it was disappointed that the government would only propose voluntary reductions because that could lead to some manufacturers trying to taking advantage by retaining more sugar in their food products.

“We believe that the only way to achieve the targets that the government [has] set out is to ensure a level playing field across the food industry and previous experience with salt reduction has proven this to be the case,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability policy at the BRC.

Under the voluntary “responsibility deal” between the Cameron government and industry, some supermarkets cut the salt in own-brand products faster than others and found they were at a competitive disadvantage, Opie said.

Sainsbury’s said it supported compulsory sugar reduction targets and added that it was already removing multi-buy packs of sugary foods, which tempt people to purchase and eat more than they need. No restrictions on such promotions were in the government plan, even though they were recommended by Public Health England.

Related: Former ministers attack ‘massive damp squib’ of childhood obesity plan

“We need a holistic approach to tackle childhood obesity, including compulsory measured targets across all nutrients – not just sugar – and mandatory traffic light labelling across all food and drink products, regardless of whether they are consumed inside or outside the home,” said Mike Coupe, chief executive of Sainsbury’s.

The long-awaited childhood obesity strategy was released by the Department of Health on Wednesday, but was swiftly criticised. Food and drink manufacturers that reduce the amount of sugar in their products by 20% will escape a proposed sugar tax on soft drinks when it is introduced in two years’ time.

The strategy left out two measures that Public Health England had said would have the greatest impact on the childhood obesity epidemic: ending price-cutting promotions of junk food in supermarkets; and restricting advertising of unhealthy food to children through family TV programmes such as Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, as well as on social media and websites.

Two former health ministers also criticised the government’s plan to tackle childhood obesity. Dr Dan Poulter, a Conservative MP, said: “This is certainly not the ‘gamechanging’ plan for reducing childhood obesity that it had been built up to be.” Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat who also served in the last coalition government, said it was a “massive damp squib”.

Related: Childhood obesity: UK’s ‘inexcusable’ strategy is wasted opportunity, say experts

Jamie Oliver said the strategy was “underwhelming” because “so much is missing”. “I’m in shock,” added the celebrity chef, who was behind a campaign to improve school dinners. “The long-awaited childhood obesity strategy from Theresa May’s new government is far from robust, and I don’t know why it was shared during recess. It contains a few nice ideas, but so much is missing.

“Where are the actions on the irresponsible advertising targeted at our children, and the restrictions on junk food promotions? With this disappointing and, frankly, underwhelming strategy, the health of our future generations remains at stake,” Oliver continued.

Health experts, the food and drink industry and retailers all agree that sugar, the focus of the government plan, is not the only cause of obesity.Euromonitor, the respected data analyst, said it was unlikely that sugar was solely responsible for the obesity crisis in the UK or across Europe.

Sara Petersson, nutrition analyst, said: “In order to fight the current crisis, we will have to take on a more global approach to improving our diets. For example, our Passport: Nutrition data shows that, similarly to sugar, fat intake is also higher in diets of countries with higher overweight and obesity rates.”

Food Standards Scotland (FSS), the statutory body that advises the Scottish government, said the UK obesity strategy fell short of what has been proposed to ministers in Scotland.

“It is particularly disappointing that some crucial measures such as taking action on promotions and on advertising and marketing have been ignored,” said the chair of FSS, Ross Finnie. In January, the FSS board agreed a package of proposals, including regulation on food and drink promotions, portion-size reductions and tougher targets on the salt, sugar and fat content of foods and drinks.

Soft drinks manufacturers have been lobbying against the sugar tax since the former chancellor, George Osborne, announced it in March.

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“We agree with the government that obesity rates are too high, but we do not believe a tax on only some soft drinks with sugar will reduce them,” said a spokesman for Coca-Cola. “A policy focused on a single nutrient in a narrow range of products – that provide an average of just 5% of the total calories in a British teenager’s diet – is not the right response.”

Ian Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, said the soft drinks tax was a “disappointing diversion from effective measures to tackle obesity”. The 20% sugar reduction in foods such as yoghurts and desserts, he said, “focuses too strongly on the role of this single nutrient, when obesity is caused by excess calories from any nutrient”.

Health experts had little positive to say, even on the proposal that children should be encouraged to do an extra hour’s physical activity every day, because of its limited impact. “Exercise is good but exercise alone will not curb obesity,” said Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. “It would take an hour of hard exercise to work off one chocolate chip muffin.”

• This article was amended on 19 August 2016. An earlier version referred to “the 20% sugar reduction in foods, such as yoghurts, desserts, ketchup and pasta sauces”. Ketchup and pasta sauces are not foods that are subject to the sugar reduction targets, so the reference to them was removed.

Childhood obesity: retailers urge mandatory cuts to food sugar levels