Why UPFs are set to be next on Labour’s hit list in war on junk food ...Middle East

Ministers are expected to resist calls from campaigners for a total ban on junk food ads despite growing concern about the rise in childhood and adult obesity.

The i Paper understands the Government is considering doing more to tackle ultra-processed foods (UPFs), in light of the growing evidence of their impact on good health.

From 1 October, adverts for high fat and sugar products will be outlawed on TV before the 9pm watershed, as well as for 24 hours online.

A total ban on ads round the clock on TV has been previously backed by the healthy eating campaigner and former government food strategy chief Henry Dimbleby, as well as a House of Lords committee, which warned that the country is facing a public health emergency without tougher action.

On Friday the Environment Secretary Steve Reed announced members of the new Food Strategy Advisory Board, chaired by farming minister Daniel Zeichner, which will meet for the first time later this month.

The strategy is designed to help people afford healthy food “to tackle diet-related ill-health”, ensure food security, boost the economy and reduce the impact of farming on nature.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty will also join the panel. He said: “A poor diet increases the risk of serious and long-term diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.”

While the issue of public health – in particular related to UPFs and junk food ads – will form a key element of the strategy, it is understood that a total ban on junk food ads is not being considered by ministers.

The new members of the Food Strategy Advisory Board face a tough task in balancing the competing demands of business, farming, economic growth and public health.

Keir Starmer’s Government has pledged to fight childhood obesity but has also declared war on red tape and regulation – something the Prime Minister says is key to economic growth.

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The remit of the board is to “protect food security, improve public health, and deliver an economically resilient food system by including representatives from various sectors such as government, farming, retail and wholesale”, according to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The Government is not rowing back on its manifesto pledges: that document vowed to ban junk food ads targeted at children – which will come into force on 1 October – as well as outlawing the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s, something which insiders say is in the pipeline.

It has also changed planning rules so that local councils can ban takeaway restaurants from opening near schools, something Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, pledged during the election campaign.

What is junk food?

For the purposes of the junk food ad ban the Government has sorted food stuffs “most associated with childhood obesity” into 13 categories.

Foods within these categories are assessed as to whether they are “less healthy” based on a nutritional analysis and whether they are high in salt, fat, sugar and protein.

The 13 categories are:

But campaigners have called for more radical action, including an outright ban on all junk food ads even after the 9pm watershed, because of the scale of obesity among adults as well as children.

A recent report by the Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee called for junk food ads to be banned across all media by the end of this Parliament.

Dimbleby, a former food tsar for the previous government, told the committee the move would “break the junk food cycle”.

The committee also called for a salt and sugar reformulation tax on food manufacturers, as well as other regulations, giving the Food Standards Agency independent oversight of the food system and further research into the links between UPFs and adverse health outcomes.

It warned that two-thirds of adults are overweight while just under a third are obese, saying there had been an “utter failure to tackle this crisis” by successive governments since the 1990s.

And the committee warned ministers of the economic cost – to focus the minds of Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves. It claimed that the annual societal cost of obesity is at least 1-2 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, told The i Paper: “The Government has high ambitions and a committed group of advisers ready to drive real change, but the devil will be in the detail.

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“History has shown that past attempts to fix our broken food system have failed without regulation – essential for creating a level playing field. As a result, highly processed foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar have continued to push healthier options off our plates.

“As the Food Strategy develops, we need assurances that it won’t, yet again, be diluted or delayed – because we simply can’t afford to wait.”

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) says it will work with the Government, and the Food Strategy Advisory Board, on all of its targets including public health.

It is also undertaking work on “reformulation” – providing smaller portion sizes and making its processed products healthier, investing £160m in 2023 in developing healthier options.

FDF research says the average shopping basket of its members’ products now contribute a third less salt and a quarter fewer sugars and calories since 2015.

The FDF says: “However, this isn’t a problem we can solve alone, and we want to work collaboratively with Government as it develops its food strategy to achieve a healthier and more sustainable food system, whilst ensuring the resilience of the sector and maintaining the UK’s food security.”

Public health challenge

For its part, the government – under both Defra and the Department of Health – says it is putting a lot of effort into improving the nation’s public health, which has worsened since the Covid pandemic and growing health inequalities which can exacerbate obesity.

Both departments are working very closely on the food strategy, insiders said, as well as industry leaders and experts, and there could be more to come on tackling UPFs.

The Government also insists its pre-watershed and online junk food ad ban from October will make a difference to the obesity crisis: it estimates that 7.2bn calories per year are expected to be removed from the diets of UK children as a result of the measures, which could prevent around 20,000 cases of childhood obesity.

And since before the election, Streeting has pledged to put improving public health at the heart of his mission to turn around the NHS.

The Government’s upcoming 10-year plan, expected to be published within weeks, will place a greater emphasis on prevention of illness and conditions like obesity.

The Department of Health estimates that obesity costs the NHS around £11bn every year and is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer.

Yet tackling obesity is not the only challenge facing the Food Strategy Advisory Board. In its manifesto, Labour also pledged to improve the nation’s food security.

This has come under strain due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Brexit and climate change – which have combined to push up inflation, bringing more costs not only to consumers but producers and farmers.

Pledging that “Labour recognises that food security is national security,” the manifesto made a commitment to champion British farming whilst also protecting the environment, and set a target for half of all food purchased across the public sector to be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards.

It also said it would reduce food prices. After the July election, inflation fell in September but has been gradually ticking up since, to 3 per cent in January.

The stickiness of this figure is causing an extra challenge for the food and farming sectors.

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Labour’s manifesto pledged to reduce food prices by “removing barriers to businesses trading”.

This war on red tape has been escalated by the Prime Minister and Chancellor, with pledges to cut regulations on businesses.

Yet the Chancellor has been criticised for adding to the burden on businesses in the food and farming sectors with both the “jobs tax” – the increase in employers’ national insurance from next month – and the “farm tax”, which restricts relief from inheritance tax on family farmland.

The Food and Drink Federation says its sector is key to the UK’s economic growth – the Government’s No 1 priority.

Food and drink manufacturing contributes £37bn to the UK economy, out of a total £160bn of the food and drink sector, and half a million jobs.

Balwinder Dhoot, FDF director of sustainability and industry growth, told The i Paper: “The food manufacturing sector has been through a challenging time – Brexit, Covid, the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation, climate change impacts.

“We looked like we were coming out of it but this year it is still a challenging environment.

“Having a strategy around a food system, with joined-up policy-making, is really welcome.

“There are things we need to do to make sure there is more resilience in the food system, including tackling the impacts of climate change.

“The population is going to grow from 68 million to 78 million by 2050, we need to make sure we can feed them.

“Food is the biggest manufacturing sector in the UK. There are jobs [related to the food sector] in every constituency and community in every region in the country.”

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