23 Jul 2019 Food Active response to the Prevention Green Paper
We are pleased to see the publication of the Prevention Green Paper today by the Department for Health and Social Care and Commons.
Some of the proposals will play an important part in the Government reaching it’s target of halving childhood obesity by 2030, including clearer food labelling to support families to make healthier decisions on the type of food they buy and eat, improving the nutrition and tackling the marketing of commercially available baby food, improving breastfeeding rates and considering extending the sugar tax to sugary milky drinks.
Whilst we are very pleased to see the official announcement of a sales restriction on energy drinks to under 16-year olds (albeit full details are undisclosed at this point), it is disappointing that this is the only regulatory action mentioned in the paper and the actions proposed above are all subject to even more consultations, which staggered the progress and impact of the Childhood Obesity Plan Chapter 2. Furthermore, there is no mention of the outcomes of these crucial consultations that were announced over a year ago in Chapter 2 – including tackling the promotion of less healthy food and drink by price and place, introducing calorie labelling in the out of home sector and further advertising restrictions on less healthy food and drink on TV broadcast and online. If we are to face any chance of helping more children grow up healthy, we urge the Government to finish what they started in Chapter 2 and publish the outcomes of these consultations.
Food Active will be preparing responses to the consultations around promoting Healthy Weight (deadline 14th October), using our own evidence but also aligning our responses with partner organisations to advocate for the bold and ambitious action that is needed in order to tackle the complex issue of obesity that is currently facing our population.
We all know that prevention is better than cure – but only when words are translated into action.
Read the consultation document here.
See the list of consultation questions here.
