Government health officials have unveiled a new strategy calling on the food industry to cut the nation’s daily calorie intake by 20 per cent by 2024.
Pubic Health England (PHE) urged supermarkets, restaurants and food outlets to change their recipes, reduce portion sizes and encourage consumers to purchase lower calorie products.
Steve Brine MP, public health and social care minister, said the strategy was the “first of its kind from any country in the world” following new evidence that overweight or obese boys and girls consume up to 500 and 290 calories too many each day respectively.
They highlighted pizzas, ready meals, ready-made sandwiches, meat products and savoury snacks as being key problem foods.
PHE say if the 20% target is met within 5 years, more than 35,000 premature deaths could be prevented and around £9 billion in NHS healthcare and social care costs saved over a 25 year period.
Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, said: “The simple truth is on average we need to eat less. Children and adults routinely eat too many calories and it’s why so many are overweight or obese.
“Industry can help families by finding innovative ways to lower the calories in the food we all enjoy and promoting UK business leadership on the world stage in tackling obesity.
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis spoke last week about encouraging healthier eating from his stores at the City Food Lecture, in Guildhall, London, calling for “heavy duty transformational change”.
Lewis said: “Experts are clear that obesity is driving an increase in numerous health conditions I’m interested by the idea of how we put health, environment and affordability together.”
