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31 January 2025
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The Government’s response to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee’s report

If the Government is serious about achieving its mission to prevent illness and disease instead of just treating it when it comes, we need to see a shift away from voluntary agreements with industry and introduce mandatory measures that protect us from the tactics industry use to shape our food and drink habits.

Alice Wiseman
ADPH Vice President

The Government has published its response to the UK House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee’s food and health report Recipe for Health: A Plan to Fix our Broken Food System. The report was published last year based on evidence from experts, including ADPH.

It concluded that obesity and diet-related disease are a public health emergency costing billions each year in healthcare costs and lost productivity. The report called on the Government to develop a comprehensive, integrated long-term new strategy to fix our food system.

Alice Wiseman, our Vice President, who gave evidence to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee last year and spoke at the report’s launch in October, said:

“The Government’s recognition that the UK is in the midst of an obesity crisis caused by our increasingly unhealthy food environment is very welcome. So too is its re-commitment to the introduction of unhealthy food advertising restrictions, and sale of energy drinks.

“However, the report produced by the House of Lords Committee made a wide range of other recommendations which, if adopted, would support a multipronged approach to tackling this increasingly concerning public health emergency.

“The evidence is clear – obesity is responsible for at least 200,000 cases of cancer annually, makes people five times more likely to develop type two diabetes and puts immense strain on cardiovascular health. Living with obesity also increases the risk of breathing problems, musculoskeletal disorders and complications in pregnancy. It can also adversely impact mental health and, because our consumption habits are formed at an early age, it is vital that we do more to protect children and young people in particular, to reduce these alarming statistics.

“If the Government is serious about achieving its mission to prevent illness and disease instead of just treating it when it comes, we need to see a shift away from voluntary agreements with industry and introduce mandatory measures that protect us from the tactics industry use to shape our food and drink habits. There are a raft of measures that Directors of Public Health and their teams are working with partners in the local community to implement but these must be backed up by national action.

“The upcoming food strategy must address these – and other – issues and the Government must continue to bring about change that means everyone, regardless of where they live or how much money they earn, is able to access healthy food and drink and live a healthier life for longer.”

ADPH is a member of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of 60 health organisations who have joined together to advocate for policies to improve population health and address obesity. Many of the coallition’s members gave evidence to the House of Lords committee and Kat Jenner, Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, has expressed disappointed in the Government’s response, saying it “lacks the bold action needed to fix our broken food environment.”

 

Read our response to the original report
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