The government’s ‘voluntary’ approach is failing to address the health impact of ultra-processed foods and tougher regulation was now needed, according to a British Medical Association (BMA) report.
Improving the nation’s health: the impact of ultra-processed food, published today, said that ‘a succession of voluntary policies alongside delayed and weakened regulation’ had failed to protect public health.
The BMA warned that ultra-processed foods are contributing to preventable conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which places strain on the NHS.
The report highlighted that, on average, 66% of children’s daily energy intake comes from ultra-processed foods, and was linked to ‘poor health outcomes, excess weight and obesity in children’.
The report said it was time for the government to enforce ‘mandatory schemes’ to address the problem.
Professor David Strain, BMA board of science chair, and Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, BMA public health medicine committee chair, said: ‘Relying on voluntary measures has failed, and responsibility cannot be placed solely on families when unhealthy food is so heavily promoted and long promised protections for children have been repeatedly delayed.’
While they welcomed the recent crackdown on junk food ads which came into force last month, they said the government ‘must go further to regulate the marketing and availability of unhealthy foods’.
Alongside regulation, the report said clearer public guidance on healthier diets would need to be backed by ‘a well-resourced and supported health workforce’ to meet ‘increased demand for information and treatment’.
Without this, children will continue to be made ‘unnecessarily ill’, health inequalities will widen, and more pressure will be placed on ‘an overstretched NHS’, it said.
Dr Kath McCullough, Royal College of Physicians special adviser on obesity, echoed the BMA’s calls and said: ‘Obesity is a chronic, systemic illness shaped by social and commercial determinants of health and that we need bold action to fix our broken food system.’
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been contacted for comment.
In its report, the BMA calls on the government to:
Implement without further delay effective regulation and policies
Increase industry accountability and reduce industry influence
Reduce the high levels of ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumed by children and young people
Improve access and affordability of healthy food
Invest in stronger research on UPFs to enhance existing policy design
Improve public awareness of what healthy diets look like and which UPFs are particularly unhealthy
Source: BMA