21 December 2018

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Dear member,

We have been made aware that the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, is due to publish an annual report tomorrow, in which she is calling for a “unified approach to revolutionise health by 2040”.

In the report, Dame Sally Davies makes a wide range of recommendations, those most relevant to members are below. The media are focussing on those that centre around additional food taxes, following her noting that the food industry has “failed to take enough action”.

Her recommendations are as follows:

• I recommend that the UK government ensure that future developments of the Childhood Obesity plan include a specific target to halve current inequalities in childhood obesity by 2030 or sooner, with support for Local Authorities to meet this target.
• I recommend that HM Government extend the sugar levy to sweetened milk-based drinks with added sugar and take action to eliminate added sugar in commercial infant and baby foods.
• I recommend that HM Government review the use of fiscal disincentives in relation to foods that are high in sugar and salt and also incentives to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.
• I recommend that in 2019, HM Government through Public Heath England need to set more ambitious targets for salt reduction in food. This should apply equally to the out-of-home sector, which has lagged behind. If these targets are not met then they should be mandated and a range of other interventions considered, including mandating front of pack labelling.

So far we have received enquiries from The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, BBC Breakfast, The Times and the i, and have prepared the following statement:

Kate Halliwell, FDF Head of UK Diet and Health Policy said:

“FDF member companies are fully engaged with the Government's various reformulation programmes. They provide flexibility for manufacturers to decide how best to reduce sugar and calorie consumption amongst children. This is something manufacturers have been doing for over a decade.

“Over five years FDF member companies have reduced calorie content in the average basket by 5.5%, and sugar content by 12.1%. PHE have themselves said that the industry has made good progress in reducing the amount of sugar in products. Our salt reduction efforts have been described as 'world-leading'.

“However, we also recognise that there is more work to be done. PHE's sugar and calorie reduction programmes are only in their early stages. As PHE have themselves pointed out, reformulation takes time – it can't happen overnight. It comes with considerable technical challenges. For example sugar plays a variety of roles beyond sweetness in food including colour, texture and consistency. It is for these reasons that we have long said that the guidelines are ambitious and will not be met across all categories or in the timescale outlined.

“There is no evidence that additional food taxes can change consumer behaviours over the long-term. McKinsey, in its comprehensive review of policy tools aimed at tackling obesity, ranked tax thirteenth in effectiveness out of sixteen interventions, while portion control and product reformulation were ranked one and two.

“Food and drink companies should focus efforts where they can have the maximum impact, instead of managing the impact of wrong-headed legislation.”

Do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

More information

Contact Ella Stanbrook, Corporate Affairs Division, at: ella.stanbrook@fdf.org.uk, or 02074207131.

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