Food companies and investors call on UK government to tackle unhealthy diets

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British businesses and investors are calling on the government to tackle diet-related health issues through stricter regulatory scrutiny of the food industry, as long-term conditions such as obesity impact productivity.

Tesco, Iceland, Nomad Foods and three institutional investors have said companies should be legally required to report the proportion of their profits from selling products high in fat. salt and sugar.

They told the Financial Times that ministers should set out a roadmap for legislation to tackle the problem of poor eating habits. The call comes after official data showed 2.8 million people in the UK are economically inactive due to long-term illness.

There is clearly a childhood obesity crisis and it is getting worse. We welcome a range of reforms to encourage healthier diets, said Lauren Woodley, group nutrition leader at Nomad Foods, maker of Birds Eye fish fingers.

There was a lot of uncertainty during the last government term. And uncertainty makes it difficult to plan, she added.

The demands come as Labor outlines plans to ease pressure on the NHS, one of the party's top five priorities while in government.

Tesco said delays and relaxations in key legislation aimed at improving people's diets had created an uneven playing field within the industry.

Tescos director of health Oonagh Turnbull said the previous Conservative administration's stop-start approach to implementing reforms had been a huge challenge for the retailer. We have a huge role to play, but to bring about real change, the entire industry needs to play by the same rules.

Turnbull said retailers welcomed the regulations, which were designed in consultation with businesses, and the success of legislation to ban retailers from promoting products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) in prominent positions within stores, to be introduced in 2022. pointed out.

We believe that the reorganization would not have occurred at the same scale and pace without it. [HFSS] legislation. She added that she led the change.

Woodley said new measures were needed to combat the obesity crisis, including increased data transparency, limiting advertising and educating consumers about healthy eating habits.

A well-designed tax that takes HFSS foods into account is a tool that governments can use, but it comes with a strong caveat that taxation alone cannot change behavior, she said.

Retailers pointed to previous government plans to ban junk food advertising on television and online before 9pm from the end of 2022 in a bid to combat childhood obesity.

Plans to require food companies and retailers to report health indicators through the Food Data Transparency Partnership have been defeated. The partnership was established in 2022 following recommendations in Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy.

Investors have been putting increasing pressure on food companies to set more ambitious health and nutrition targets to de-risk their portfolios from the environmental and social impacts of unhealthy foods.

But asset managers said that without regulation, companies lack incentives to make real changes, such as reformulating products to make them healthier or recording nutritional and environmental data.

Rachel Crossley, head of European management at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said it was important for data reporting to be mandatory so investors could have comparative data to evaluate companies.

A consistent approach must be taken to integrate that data into rating systems and investment decisions.

Sophie Lawrence, head of governance and engagement at Rathbone Greenbank Investments, said that throughout history, many voluntary reporting frameworks had failed to drive change.

If you look at voluntary sugar reduction programmes, obesity has actually doubled in the UK.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: This Government is committed to tackling the obesity crisis with a strong focus on shifting the focus from treatment to prevention to ease the strain on the NHS and help people live longer and better. is being addressed urgently.

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