The UK food sector has reacted angrily to claims it is failing to properly address health issues to tackle the global diet crisis.
A report from London’s City University claimed that the response of most companies to the World Health Organisation’s guidelines on fighting obesity, cancer and heart disease has been “lukewarm”.
The study, led by Tim Lang, particularly highlighted retailers as the worst performers when it comes to promoting healthy diets, improving products’ nutritional quality and practising responsible marketing.
However, Andrew Opie, food policy director at the BRC, said the report does not reflect the situation in the UK. “UK retailers are doing a huge amount on this issue. The BRC has just published its Healthy Options report, which shows examples of retailer initiatives that are widely acknowledged across Europe as being in the vanguard of the fight against obesity.”
Asda have also reacted angrily to the claims. A spokesman said: “The research was limited to looking at corporate websites and annual reports. Not the most sophisticated academic research technique we’ve ever heard of. Had they looked at our own site they’d have found that the Asda Food Pledge has resulted in hundreds of healthier Asda foods at no extra cost to customers.
“We’ve taken 221 tonnes of fat, 199t of salt and 135t of sugar out of our Smart Price food range; reformulated our own-label pre-packed bread and crisps to contain 10 per cent less salt and removed 71t of fat and almost 18t of salt from our frozen and chilled ready meals.”
