{"id":280858,"date":"2026-02-12T18:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/280858\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:24:08","slug":"stronger-regulation-needed-on-ultra-processed-food-says-bma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/280858\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Stronger regulation\u2019 needed on ultra-processed food, says BMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government\u2019s \u2018voluntary\u2019 approach is failing to address the health impact of ultra-processed foods and tougher regulation<\/a> was now needed, according to a British Medical Association (BMA)<\/a> report.<\/p>\n

Improving the nation\u2019s health: the impact of ultra-processed food<\/a>, published today, said that\u00a0\u2018a succession of voluntary policies alongside delayed and weakened regulation\u2019 had failed to protect public health.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The report highlighted that, on average, 66% of children\u2019s daily energy intake comes from ultra-processed foods, and was linked to \u2018poor health outcomes, excess weight and obesity in children\u2019.<\/p>\n

The report said it was time for the government to enforce \u2018mandatory schemes\u2019\u00a0 to address the problem.<\/p>\n

Professor David Strain, BMA board of science chair, and Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, BMA public health medicine committee chair, said: \u2018Relying 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

While they welcomed the recent crackdown on junk food ads<\/a> which came into force last month, they said the government \u2018must go further to regulate the marketing and availability of unhealthy foods\u2019.<\/p>\n

Alongside regulation, the report said clearer public guidance on healthier diets would need to be backed by \u2018a well-resourced and supported health workforce\u2019 to meet \u2018increased demand for information and treatment\u2019.<\/p>\n

Without this, children will continue to be made \u2018unnecessarily ill\u2019, health inequalities will widen, and more pressure will be placed on \u2018an overstretched NHS\u2019, it said.<\/p>\n

Dr Kath McCullough, Royal College of Physicians special adviser on obesity, echoed the BMA\u2019s calls and said: \u2018Obesity 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

In its report, the BMA calls on the government to: <\/p>\n

Implement without further delay effective regulation and policies
\nIncrease industry accountability and reduce industry influence
\nReduce the high levels of ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumed by children and young people
\nImprove access and affordability of healthy food
\nInvest in stronger research on UPFs to enhance existing policy design
\nImprove public awareness of what healthy diets look like and which UPFs are particularly unhealthy<\/p>\n

Source: BMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government\u2019s \u2018voluntary\u2019 approach is failing to address the health impact of ultra-processed foods and tougher regulation was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,111,139,556,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-280858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}