A new Labour “nanny state” crackdown will force supermarkets to cut 100 calories from shopping baskets in a bid to tackle obesity. The Telegraph has more.
Ministers are set to impose a “healthy food standard” that will force stores to curtail sales of sugary and salty snacks in favour of more fruit and vegetables.
Shops failing to meet the mandatory targets could face fines, which retail sources warned could see prices rise.
The measures will form the backbone of a 10-year plan to improve the nation’s health, which will be unveiled by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, this week. Downing Street hopes the changes can help avert the need for future tax rises by slashing the £11 billion a year that obesity costs the NHS.
But senior retail figures said they had been blindsided by the “draconian” plans, which they said would add to a growing glut of red tape on business.
One called the proposals a “nanny state” policy, while another industry source warned that the measures were being “propelled by food propagandists” who did not believe in people taking responsibility for their own diets. …
It will be underpinned by a new regime of mandatory reporting, meaning large shops have to submit data on how much of each product they sell.
Under the proposals, it will be left up to supermarkets to decide how they meet the requirements. Retailers could change the recipes of own-brand products, target discount offers or award shoppers more loyalty points for choosing healthier options. …
Announcing the new policy, the Government cited research estimating that cutting the average person’s intake by just 50 calories a day would lift 340,000 children and two million adults out of obesity.
However, experts questioned the claim. Tom Sanders, Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics at King’s College London, said it was “not a view that most experts in nutrition would share”. …
Shops already face significant regulation over unhealthy food, including being required to move products with high salt and sugar away from the front of stores. Supermarket chiefs are understood to privately be concerned that further regulation would force them to raise prices in stores and pause new openings.
One senior industry figure said there was no evidence that such “draconian regulation” had helped tackle obesity, adding: “Proponents now want to go further.”
The insider claimed the agenda was “propelled by food propagandists” who wanted a crackdown on ultra-processed products such as sliced bread, crisps, biscuits and ham. Another source questioned why ministers were focusing solely on supermarkets rather than also including takeaway chains and high street bakeries.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Reform the NHS, not our shopping baskets, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
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