Henry Dimbleby calls on government to ‘break junk food cycle’
Recommendation one is to introduce a sugar and salt reformulation tax with some of the revenue being used to help get fresh fruit and vegetables to low-income families
Dimbleby, during an interview with BBC News, said: “There is an interaction between the commercial incentives of companies and our appetite. We find these foods that their marketing delicious [but] they don’t make us full as quickly, we eat more they invest more, we eat more they invest more.
“There have 14 previous obesity plans in this country and almost all of them have been voluntary measures and your not going to break this junk food cycle, this interaction between our appetite and the commercial incentive of companies unless you tackle it directly and that is what we are recommending with the sugar and salt reformulation tax.
“It is not a tax to increase price, it is a price to make the companies reformulate as they did with the sugary drinks tax where they take the bad stuff out and make the worst food better.”
Other recommendations of the National Food Strategy include extending eligibility for free school meals, funding holiday activities & food programmes and launching a new ‘eat and learn’ initiative for schools.