New government, new opportunity?
The importance of driving action on reformulating food to improve public health
Foreword
A new Government creates new opportunities for policy change.
Labour’s Child Health Action Plan ambition to create the ‘healthiest generation of children ever’ and wider health mission ambitions for reducing gaps in healthy life expectancy between the most and least well off in society are highly welcome.2,3 But to deliver on these goals will require a step-change in Government action to improve public and dietary health.
We know that the accessibility and affordability of different types of food influences what
we eat. In the National Food Strategy, Henry Dimbleby described the link between our innate dietary preferences and the food and drink industry’s behaviour as a ‘junk food cycle’.4 People enjoy these foods. They are cheap and addictive. People buy more of them. Economies of scale increase, production costs fall further, margins increase, healthy competitors are closed out, and businesses invest in marketing and research to increase the moorishness of their products. They become even cheaper and more appealing. People buy more.
Despite Government commitments to act, rates of adult and childhood obesity have continued to rise. Two thirds of children are exceeding daily salt recommendations, while nineteen out of every twenty children consume over their daily allowance of sugar.5 Almost a quarter of children aged 10 and 11, and a quarter of adults live with obesity with much higher risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia, mental illness, joint problems and dropping out of work. The longer the exposure, the greater the health risks, and a shorter and a lower quality of life.6
As part of its mission to improve the nation’s health and support happier and healthier lives, the new Government should learn and act from what works. The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) has helped reduce the amount of sugar sold in soft drinks.
Expanding reformulation as set out in this briefing would extend these benefits more widely; improving our health and helping to prevent and reduce obesity.
The public supports stronger action, clinicians are calling for change and the industry is
asking for a level-playing field to promote healthier options.
What is now required is the political will to act.
A new Government with a significant majority and high ambition for our health creates an opportunity for change.
It’s time to build a healthier future and make change happen.
Lord Filkin, Labour
Lord Bethell, Conservatives
Baroness Walmsley, Liberal Democrats
About this publication
This joint Future Health and Recipe for Change briefing was commissioned by the Recipe for Change campaign to understand and help overcome political barriers to extending reformulation policies aimed at preventing obesity and improving child health in the UK.
The Recipe for Change campaign calls for a new industry levy to help make our food healthier, while raising revenue that can be invested back into children’s health. Such a levy could be applied to all salt and sugar used in manufactured food and catering, or applied to specific product categories only. It has the potential to have wide-ranging health and economic benefits by improving the nation’s health and reducing cases of preventable diet-related disease such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes
and various cancers.1
Recipe for Change is a coalition of over 45 health, food and children’s organisations across the UK. It is co-ordinated by Sustain, Obesity Health Alliance, the Food Foundation, British Heart Foundation and Action on Sugar, with support from Impact on Urban Health. www.recipeforchange.org.uk
1 https://www.sustainweb.org/assets/recipe-for-change-launch-report-1703002340.pdf
3 https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Mission-Public-Services.pdf
4 https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/the-report/
5 https://foodfoundation.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-09/Childrens-Future-Food-Inquiryreport.pdf
6 https://assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/7dc3c3eb8b/action_plan_for_better_health_
jul24.pdf; see also https://assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/8a05ca753d/health_is_wealth_jul_2024.pdf
This report is authored by Richard Sloggett, Programme Director, Future Health Research.