Tax salt, sugar to promote health, says report

Healthier diets would not only reduce obesity but lessen other risk factors 

An independent report commissioned by the government has called for a radical overhaul of the food industry in England, with fruit and vegetables to be prescribed by doctors, and additional taxes on sugar and salt.

The report by the National Food Strategy was commissioned in 2019 and says money raised by increased taxes could be used to provide additional and improved school meals and support better dietary habits among the poorest sections of society.

In addition, improved diet would be better for the environment, and ease strain on the National Health Service. The report says inferior quality diet is a factor in 64,000 deaths each year in England alone, and costs the economy 74 billion pounds ($102.8 billion).

Businessman Henry Dimbleby, who led the study, told the BBC that the COVID-19 crisis had underlined the wider issue of dietary health, calling it "a painful reality check".

"Our high obesity rate has been a major factor in the United Kingdom's tragically high death rate," he added.

"We must now seize the moment to build a better food system for our children and grandchildren.

"It is well within our power to change the system so it makes both us and the planet healthier."

The food industry has expressed concern that increased taxes on sugar and salt, which would be imposed at wholesale level, could lead to increased prices in shops, but Dimbleby rejected this.

"We do not actually believe that for most things it will hike the price－what it will do is it will reformulate, it will make people take sugar and salt out," he said.

He also told Sky News that hoping improved food education would resolve the issue was not enough, and more interventionist measures were needed.

"Everyone thinks in this country… the way to solve obesity and dietrelated disease is through education, exercise and willpower and people who don't have the willpower deserve what is inflicted upon them … but actually none of that is true," he said.

"There is a strong genetic component in some people that makes them particularly attracted to these foods.

"Companies market at them, they eat more and companies spend more money on it－you need to break that commercial cycle and that is what the tax is intended to do."

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told ITV News that the government would be giving the report "careful thought" before setting out its own food strategy later in the year.

"It's right that when we do that, we strike a balance between tackling undoubtedly the challenge of obesity but also ensuring that these things are a question of personal choice and judgment rather than the state telling you what to do," he added.

The report's suggestions, which the government says it will respond to within six months, have won the backing of several leading charities, including the British Heart Foundation.

"This significant report makes strong recommendations to make everyday foods healthier for all, and which must be considered as part of the comprehensive action needed to tackle obesity," said its chief executive, Charmaine Griffiths.

"Diets high in sugar and salt drive dangerous risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure, putting millions of people at increased risk of heart attack and stroke."

The report also called for a 30 percent reduction in meat consumption during the next 10 years, to help achieve existing healthy eating goals and also to reduce the environmental impact, but shied away from the suggestion of a meat tax, which was described as "politically impossible" and likely to prove unpopular with the public.