Fast food cave-in: Coalition strikes deal with Coca-Cola and McDonald's to fight obesity... but lets them regulate themselves

Fast food cave-in: Coalition strikes deal with Coca-Cola and McDonald's to fight obesity... but lets them regulate themselves

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 10:42 GMT, 1 December 2010

• No salt, sugar or fat limits for junk food manufacturers

Junk  food firms are to be put in charge of Britain’s health - setting their own rules for using fat, sugar and salt.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley believes companies such as Mars, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s and McDonald’s can be relied upon to make their products more healthy voluntarily.

He has stripped the Food Standards Agency of its role to set targets for food firms to reduce saturated fat and salt.

Lifestyle choices: People will be urged to take responsibility for their health problems, such as obesity, in the Government's White Paper

And yesterday he announced a so-called ‘responsibility deal’, under which food firms will volunteer to set their own health targets.

But the proposal, part of a controversial public health White Paper, was condemned by campaigners who likened it to putting ‘Dracula in charge of the blood bank’.

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Medical experts warned that it puts in jeopardy the progress made on tackling obesity.

Mr Lansley’s other proposals include:

• Higher duty on strong lager and cider adding £1.50 to the price of a pack of four cans
• The introduction of a £4billion public health quango to snoop on people and their living habits
• Bonuses for GPs linked to the number of patients they encourage to lose weight
• The appointment of some 150 public health directors.

PUBLIC HEALTH PLANS

• Food and drink companies such as Coca-Cola and Cadbury to play key role in anti-obesity campaigns
• Regulation of salt and sugar in junk foods ditched
• Councils handed responsibility and £4 billion a year to improve health inequalities
• Public Health England to be established to lead vaccination programmes and response to flu pandemics
• PE to be guaranteed in schools

Mr Lansley told MPs: ‘There is a clear philosophy here that we will pursue the voluntary approach, that we will only regulate where necessary. We will seek to have less intrusive and less interventionist approaches in order that we can make more progress more quickly.’

The Health Secretary was criticised in the summer when he announced that firms such as Mars, Cadbury and Coca-Cola would take on a bigger role in funding anti-obesity campaigns.

He said he wanted to free food and drink firms from the ‘burden of regulation’ and would invite them to take on a greater role in public health.

The ‘responsibility deal’ will focus on five areas: food, alcohol, exercise, health at work and changing people’s behaviour.

It will be launched next year with the aim of drawing up voluntary agreements on cutting salt in food and giving consumers more information.

Deal: The Government will end regulation of junk food and drinks such as Coca Cola and McDonald's in return for help with campaigns

As previously announced, councils will be given more powers to refuse licences to pubs and clubs which have a problem with drunkenness.

Mr Lansley said the public health policy was designed to ‘nudge’ men and women to improve their diet and lifestyles.

However, Professor Philip James, of the International Obesity Task Force, said giving food companies a bigger role was ‘a major setback for the health of the nation’.

Announcement: Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said politicians should not regulate but help with 'less intrusive and less interventionist approaches'

Questioning the Health Secretary’s approach, he asked: ‘Is he just abandoning public health in the usual meaning of the words and handing it over to the food industry?’

Jeanette Longfield, of the campaigning food and health group, Sustain, said: ‘These changes amount to putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.

'The Government seems to be abdicating responsibility for improving the health of the nation.’

And although Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, welcomed the White Paper, he was disappointed by the lack of detail on dealing with obesity, alcohol misuse and smoking.

He warned: ‘It has been clearly demonstrated that a laissez-faire attitude does not work.’

However, the British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets, welcomed the removal of official health targets.

Food director Andrew Opie said: ‘A less top-down approach that works constructively with food businesses and other organisations is sensible.’

As part of the White Paper, GPs will be given bonuses for telling patients to lose weight, exercise more and cut back on alcohol. They could earn thousands more a year for reaching key ‘public health’ targets.

Ministers say 15 per cent of their performance-related pay should be dependent on them encouraging patients to be healthier, which could include referring them to slimming clubs or fitness classes.

Around a third of the average GP’s £106,000 salary is made up of performance-related pay.

It is not yet clear how the ‘public health’ incentives will operate or how much GPs could earn.