Retail bosses have hit out at a government plan to stop supermarkets from selling junk food in favour of fruit and vegetables as a “nanny state” policy that would add to red tape faced by high street shops.
Under new plans to tackle the NHS’s £11.4bn obesity bill, the government will set supermarkets a “healthy food standard” which will force them to promote less calorific products.
Retailers will be given “freedom” to tweak recipes, change shopping layouts or offer discounts on healthy food to comply with the new standard, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
The largest companies in food will publish transparency and accountability reports on popular products, with targets on the sales of fruit and vegetables to be slapped on businesses around the country.
But senior retail bosses have blasted the “draconian” plans as heavy-handed and said it represented a “nanny state” measure that reflected the state’s distrust in people’s own decision-making, according to the Telegraph.
Some chiefs suggested the plans would lead to unintended consequences as supermarkets face more burden.
Food standards to ‘cost jobs’
Research underpinning the measure suggests that cutting 50 calories from Britons’ daily diet would lift 340,000 children and 2m adults out of obesity.
Health secretary Wes Streeting pointed out the UK’s obesity rate had doubled since the 1990s, with a new report set to show one in five children are living with obesity by the time they leave primary school.
“If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by around 200 calories a day – the equivalent of a bottle of fizzy drink – obesity would be halved,” Streeting said.
“This government’s ambition for kids today is for them to be part of the healthiest generation of children ever.
“Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and are trying to make their stores healthier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field.”
Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said he supported the government’s intervention on retailers while Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts created a “level playing field” across the food sector on health reporting.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said further red tape showed the government risked putting extra strain on a sector that has seen employment drop by 2.9m in the last five years.
‘We need a state which does fewer things better,” Griffith said.
“This sort of nanny state mission creep costs lives, jobs and is why UK competitiveness is in free fall.”
Streeting is expected to detail a 10-year health plan this week that will expand on the use of weight-loss drugs to reduce obesity levels and cut bureaucracy across the NHS.
“By shifting from sickness to prevention through our plan for change, we will make sure the NHS can be there for us when we need it.”
