The number of calories found in pizzas, chips, crisps and other unhealthy foods beloved by Britons must be cut dramatically to help the fight against obesity, the government has declared.
Cafes, fast food takeaways and restaurants have been told to reduce the calorific content of the goods they sell by 20% by 2024, given their key role in fuelling the obesity epidemic.
Public Health England has unveiled a series of targets for calorie reduction that it expects both supermarkets and out of home food outlets to deliver within four years. It is part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to persuade the food industry to reformulate its products by including less fat, salt and sugar to help people live more healthily.
Under new PHE guidelines, pizzas and pastry products such as pies and sausage rolls will have to become 20% less calorific regardless of whether they are bought to take out, eat in or have at home.
Pizzas sold in takeaways or restaurants can contain as many as 2,320 calories – more than a woman’s daily recommended maximum (2,000) and almost a man’s (2,500) – whereas one bought in a supermarket generally contains between 205 and 775 calories.
The same 20% cut should be made to anything classed as a main meal, for example, fish and chips, but frozen chips bought at a supermarket face a smaller drop of just 10%. In addition, no main meal should include more than 1,345 calories, PHE said.
The agency, which is part of the Department of Heath and Social Care but is being abolished in March, also has an ambition that children’s meals will shed 10% of their calories by 2024.
Ready meals and garlic bread should become 10% less calorific, while a 5% target has been set for crisps, savoury snacks and sandwiches.
“We can all do our bit to stay healthy, to help protect us from coronavirus and take pressure off the NHS. The food industry can play their part by making it as easy as possible for everyone to eat more healthily,” said Jo Churchill, the public health minister.
However, health groups criticised the fact that the targets are only voluntary. “The sooner we get mandatory action, rather than a hope that industry will make its own calorie cuts, the sooner obesity will have a chance of being curbed. Industry’s overriding thought is of profits and pays only lip service to health,” said Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum.
There is mixed evidence that government demands on the food industry to reformulate products yield significant improvements. Ministers said they wanted to see 20% less sugar in products by 2020, but by 2018 firms had delivered a drop of only 2.9% on average.
The Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of over 40 health groups, said firms and outlets that do not comply with PHE’s new targets should be fined. It urged ministers to extend the principle of the sugar tax to foodstuffs generally to encourage manufacturers to make their products healthier.
“We know from sugar reduction efforts that a regulatory approach, such as the soft drinks industry levy, has been much more effective in getting the food industry to reduce sugar than the voluntary programme. That’s why we want the government to make it absolutely clear that they will bring in similar fiscal measures if companies don’t meet the targets,” said Caroline Cerny, the alliance’s lead.
Tim Rycroft, chief operating officer at the Food and Drink Federation, which represents food manufacturers, said they needed more time to deliver what he called the “monumental challenge” of achieving a 10% cut in calories.
“Our commitment to the cause cannot be doubted. Compared with just four years ago, FDF members’ products now contribute 11% fewer calories, 11% fewer sugars and 14% less salt to the average shopping basket,” he said.
